The Eclipse

Days 1-3 in the Reign of Photon Wave

Meanwhile… The Messenger andIron Wind fly to San Francisco where they encounter Kiloton – a 27’ tall bald giant with a HUGE laser cannon – rampaging through the city.

The pair engage the giant in battle and luck was with them as Kiloton was only able to land one crushing blow on the Messenger (after he corrected his golf swing for a baseball swing!) and a few weaker shots on Iron Wind before they were able to take him down.MEDUSA agents swarm in to contain the situation. To their surprise, neither hero is able to budge the giant cannon! Heavy Duty cranes are found, and the weapon is sent to GEMINI for investigation.

Michaels tells the heroes that Pit Boss and Masterini were at the old MEDUSA headquarters investigating the cell where Doctor Apocalypse was held. He also tells them that Kiloton’s trail of destruction led back into the ocean.

Surge tracks Kiloton’s trail of destruction into the ocean, but quickly loses the trail underwater.

Photon Wave and Agent Pillach set up a series of programs to search news outlets for keywords to set up an alert system for the heroes.

The next day, Photon Wave takes over as leader for his 1 week trial period.
Surge and the Messenger continue to search the ocean for signs of where Kiloton came from, but are unable to make any headway.

The Mayor of San Francisco calls. In gratitude for the victory of the previous day and other services, the city would like to honor the Eclipse with a key to the city. The San Francisco Giants have offered to host an Eclipse day at the ballpark for this purpose to be held in 2 days. The heroes accept.

The next day, Photon Wave sends Surge to search the Pinyin Properties metal shop where Iron Wind gets help with her armor repairs. Surge finds a storage room with several hundred suits of the armor in crates. He also finds a training facility underneath the metal works where Asian men are training in the use of the armor.

Meanwhile, the Messenger makes a side trip to Greece – specifically to the Oracle at Delphi. While meditating he experiences a dreamlike vision in which a cowled figure approaches him and offers benediction. He accepts and as the figure touches his head, the Messenger feels as if his head explodes. For an instant, he feels his consciousness stretched beyond the bounds of infinity. He then finds himself alone in his meditative position. Searching the mainland, he discovers no one that can connect his experience to anything related to Greek mythology.

The fledgling alert system delivers a Priority alert – A giant nearly identical to Kiloton has attacked Tokyo but was forced to retreat by a local hero group.

The team contacts the Japanese hero group and gets MEDUSA to coordinate with other coastal cities to be on the lookout for additional attacks.

Photon Wave calls Dr. Daniels at GEMINI and sets up an appointment for the following day.

The messenger returns to Greece and meditates on Mt Olympus.

The next morning, the team receives another Priority Alert from Brisbane, Australia. Another giant has attacked, but due to the warning, local heroes were able to drive it back into ocean before it could do any serious damage.

Using the three data points from the attacks, Photon Wave triangulates a location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Messenger and Surge go to check out the triangulated location.

At breakfast, Flower Power ‘listens’ to the head of the Pinyin breakfast group – to her surprise, despite his gracious exterior, he holds the heroes in a degree of contempt.

Photon Wave, Valkyrie, and Still Hammer go to GEMINI to meet with Dr. Daniels. Once they explain the circumstances behind the giant attacks and the triangulation, Dr. Daniels enters all of the pertinent data into his PC and almost immediately gets an alert.

Daniels takes the trio to meet Doctor Samuel Davis (astrophysicist) and explains that their systems are all networked to cross check unrelated departments for identical variables – in this case, the coordinates that Photon Wave supplied were also entered into the system by Dr. Davis on an unrelated matter. Dr. Davis reveals that the coordinates coincide with an unidentified meteor that splashed into the ocean several days ago.

While diving on the site, the Messenger and Surge come under laser cannon fire from below and flee

Surge goes back down under cover of darkness and discovers a large spaceship. When he attempts to enter the ship via the astral plane, he bounces off.

Photon Wave reports their findings to Michaels and discusses the potential complications of the ship being in international waters.

Later that night, the heroes go to the ballgame where they enjoy VIP treatment. Bobbleheads of Iron Wind and the Messenger are distributed to the kids in attendance; Iron Wind throws out the first pitch (with an assist by Still Hammer) to the Messenger; they enjoy the owner’s luxury suite; and they sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the seventh inning stretch.

Then, after the game, they mill about the concourse greeting the fans, signing autographs, and taking pictures when a small stampede of fans erupts from the back of the stadium. People are screaming that metahumans are attacking normal people!

Well - these didn't go quite as planned...

Photon Wave and Still Hammer head to the Bank where they learn that a stunted dwarf with magnetic powers and a metahuman with ice powers entered the bank, ripped the vault door off of its hinges and chased the patrons and employees out. After bathing the area in darkness to hopefully draw out their initial responses, the pair of heroes burst through the front door. They enter battle with Gletscher, but there is no sign of his dwarfish companion. After a minute, Photon Wave spies the invisible Dokkalfar and attacks – causing the dwarf to flee. Following his companions’ exit, Gletscher surrenders. An audit of the bank contents reveals that the only thing taken is a safe deposit box registered to a Doctor Lee Delane.

Flower Power, the Valkyrie, and Surge head over to the hostage situation. They learn that an unknown number of metahumans are holding around a dozen hostages on the 37th and 38th floors. One winged metahuman has been seen circling the building at a great height. Surge in his astral form scouts the situation out and reports that there are 13 hostages (one badly beaten) being watched by Ba Da Boom on the 38th (top) floor while Granitor is in a nearby office on a ‘special’ phone. The 37th floor is empty of people, but has been obviously searched.

Surge leads the flying metahuman (Death Kite away from the building while Flower Power and the Valkyrie enter through the open skylight. A brief fight results in Ba Da Boom and Death Kite being knocked out while Granitor holds a hostage by the throat demanding that the heroes drop their weapons and retreat. The ladies comply, but Surge (unable to hear the demands) continues the attack. Granitor crushes the hostage’s neck and throws him at the Valkyrie (who catches and revives him).

Granitor is able to get her hands on the office manager and repeats her demands that the heroes vacate the premises. The ladies leave while Surge remains invisibly. Granitor gets back on the special phone – which Surge immediately shorts out. She then pulls out a cell phone and makes a call. MEDUSA agents outside are able to monitor the cell phone communication – the villainess is demanding a helicopter from Franklin Emerson.

A brief interval later, an Emerson corporate helicopter arrives and Granitor loads her unconscious partners along with her hostage. The chopper takes off with the heroes in pursuit. Flower Power is able to put up an energy bubble around Granitor. At the same time, the co-pilot jumps from his seat and pushes Granitor out of the helicopter and he falls with the bubble. Flower Power flies to the helicopter to make sure the hostage is ok while Valkyrie flies to save the co-pilot and the villainess.

The pilot look sat Flower Power as she enters the chopper – winks at her, and places a Red Fedora on his head. Valkyrie flies up to discover that the co-pilot doesn’t need her help at all – he is Agent Alpha.

The members of the Paragon Society handle the public relations fallout of the event while the Eclipse trio returns to the Oberon Building. The following day, Franklin Emerson calls with his thanks and questions if there is anything that he or his company can do for the heroes. He does not, however, offer any details on what the villains were trying to steal.

Surge scouts the main exit and sees that the AMEA forces are causing the Bio-Android army to retreat to the base – he then scouts the tunnel exit and discovers that the far side is empty – the defenders having apparently been defeated by another force with another spaceship. He also was seen by 4 large figures coming through the tunnel.

He warns the heroes that foes are coming and the Valkyrie and Messenger team up to block the tunnel entrance with the train while the rest prepare for another battle.

The train bursts away from the entrance in a huge explosion as seven bio-androids spill from the tunnel to attack the heroes. It stakes a brief time for the heroes to all see through the illusion and they find themselves in battle with Spyder, Black Panther, Silverback, and Headliner. They manage to capture Silverback and the Headliner, but the other two escape.

The Eclipse then decides to exit through tunnel – taking the prisoners to MEDUSA. Flower Power creates a box to carry the technological equipment, technicians, prisoners, the now unconscious 9 year-old Polynesian boy that is Aumakua, and the rest of her team. The Valkyrie uses gravity control to lessen the weight of the load and the Messenger flies the box through the tunnel.

Once in the open, the heroes see a large force of AMEA troops circling the area on what appear to be flying Segways. The Messenger is ordered to land by the AMEA – Flower Power tells him to continue on past the AMEA force to the MEDUSA HQ in Pacifico.
Once they arrive at the MEDUSA HQ, Agent Michaels wheels out to meet them. He is clearly afraid and panic stricken. He insists they return to Crimson immediately while reminding them that Crimson is very dangerous.

They return to the AMEA. Crimson is predictably very angry and insists that they hand over all prisoners and hardware. The AMEA forces install Neural Dampeners on all of the prisoners (even the apparently non-superpowered technicians) and loads them into a large transport. After he finishes screaming at Flower Power, Crimson insists that as team leader she come with him for debriefing. She agrees and the rest of the heroes return to the Oberon Building

The next morning Amber does not report for work.
Flower Power wakes up in a local hotel with no memory of her time with the AMEA. Aumakua is back to being an owl and hoots happily as she wakes up.

Worried about Amber, the heroes search her apartment. There is evidence that she left quickly, but no evidence of any foul play – the only clue that they find is a partial Center City newspaper clipping reporting on a murder at the waterfront. Further research at the library reveals the entire article, including a picture of several members of the Vanguard – including the heroine Astrid who looks just like Amber!

Photon Wave quickly contacts the Vanguard to see why Astrid would be undercover and infiltrating the Eclipse. Once White Star hears the basic details, she immediately teleports to the Oberon Building and fills the team in on the details of the activities of SWORD. It appears that Amber was not only a SWORD spy, but also a clone of the infamous Spinal Tap

Agent Michaels also pays them a visit. He takes them into their conference room, and using his special wheelchair, makes the area secure from listeners. He tells them that in the future, be exceedingly careful around the AMEA and Crimson in particular. They are a governmental body with little or no oversight – their activities makes the CIA look like a bunch of girl scouts. Furthermore, given the latitude with which he is able to work, Crimson is particularly aggressive… almost evil. Michaels knows that he in particular is a metahuman with significant mental abilities. Not all of the AMEA agents are metahuman, and not all of them are rotten… but enough are to be exceeding careful around them. As a final warning – he says that under no circumstances should any of the heroes ever find themselves alone with AMEA. Flower Power blushes.

The following day, the heroes are provided a replacement secretary by MEDUSA – Junior MEDUSA Agent Karen Pillach She goes to work immediately.

Later in the day, the heroes receive 3 simultaneous alerts

A Hostage crisis a few blocks away at a downtown office building

A Bank Robbery in the suburbs

An alert from San Francisco that a Giant is on a rampage in the downtown area

Don't Lose Your Head Over It

The heroes of the Eclipse work their way through the complex following Surge’s directions. They descend an elevator which opens into a long hallway leading to the hidden train station. The heroes burst out and surprise the villains that are desperately trying to evacuate the base.

The heroes easily defeat the assorted villains, capturing Coven, Death Shroud, and Photon. They also defeat the costumed Doctor Mayfair (The Force). To their dismay, when the final blow lands on the doctor, he immediately begins to decompose rapidly – Doctor Mayfair is a Bio-Android!

An unnoticed video monitor flares to life and the heroes see the FORCE, Figment, and Firebug. The FORCE monologues for several minutes while cursing the heroes for foiling his plan.

The heroes capture the various technicians and begin removing hard drives from all of the computer units on the train. Meanwhile, the Messenger scouts out the main exit to see if it is safe to leave that way. As he approaches the exit hallway, he hears a huge crash. Peeking through the door, he sees that a spaceship-style craft has been used to batter through the outer blast door. Seeing several combatants enter the base, he hurriedly returns to the rest of the group.

Unwilling to face the likely army of Bio-Androids on the other side of the tunnel, the heroes opt to make a stand in the train station. Within 45 minutes, the attacking force exits the elevator. The heroes are faced by Morningstar, Silent Rage, the Hawk, and the Headhunter.

The villains visit a tremendous amount of damage to the heroes, culminating in a mighty swing by the Headhunter which severs Surge’s head from his neck. At that moment, Aumakua chose to activate his power to heal the assembled heroes – bringing Surge back from the dead. The heroes are able to force Headhunter to flee, but capture the remaining 3 villains.

Flower Power and the Messenger arrive back to the rest of the group at the FORCE base. They report that the battles at the outskirts of the base are with two different groups. The battle at the front gates is between the AMEA forces and a small army of bio-androids. The battle at the sea approach to the base is between flying bio-androids along with anti-aircraft emplacements and an unknown force piloting what looks like spaceships.

Surge returns from his scouting and is happy to see Flower Power as he can only communicate telepathically while in his astral form. He warns the Eclipse that an enemy force is approaching and that they should get ready.

Still Hammer bathes the hallway on darkness as the doors at the far end of the hall burst open. The heroes prepare and engage Lupus, Tim, Deflector, and three gun toting men in battle. After 90 seconds of intense fighting, all of the supervillains are unconscious (Deflector was badly hurt by an arcing power surge from his deflection field projector following a critical strike from Still Hammer) along with two of the security guards (the third surrendered) and Flower Power.

The villains concentrated all of their attacks on Flower Power – it seems that they had instructions that they were obligated to follow…

After regenerating a bit, Flower Power and the Messenger take the captives to the Starbucks.

Surge reports that during his scouting, he saw that the remaining forces in the base are loading a rail car in an apparent attempt to escape. He also reports that he saw Doctor Mayfair in a white costume with a stylized ‘F’ barking instructions to the others.

The heroes officially enroll Surge as a probationary member and begin to plan their assault on the Washington FORCE base.

Surge mentions that when he leaves his body using astral projection, his physical body appears to be in a coma-like state. He suggests that perhaps Necalli is not recovering because he is no currently present in his body for some reason.

Crimson comes through with the necessary warrant and federal authority for the attack. The heroes plan to fly commercial, but are diverted at the airport onto a private AMEA military-style transport.

Looking at the satellite photos of the base, the heroes fly in from the land-side of the base skimming the tree tops to avoid detection. During their flight, they hear the sounds of battle coming from both the front gates of the compound and the sea approach to the compound.

They quickly arrive at the bunker doors that lead to the FORCE base where they surprise Comet, Hummingbird, and Figment along with a few shock troops. The heroes quickly dispatch Comet and Hummingbird. They also discover that the shock troops are bio-androids and that when they are incapacitated, they devolve into a puddle of goop and electrical components. Figment manages to escape invisibly.

Photon Wave takes Comet’s hand and places it on the biometric scanner on the bunker causing the doors to open. The heroes enter the bunker while the Messenger flies the two captives to the nearest official law enforcement group available – the Starbucks in Seattle. Cadet accepts the villains into custody, although he seems confused as to what the Eclipse is doing in their jurisdiction.

A Cameo by Longhorn Tex

All access codes to the HQ are changed to prevent Firebug’s access following his defection to the Church.

While at the Pinyin site getting her armor repaired, the shop workers ask Iron Wind if it is critical that her armor be repaired quickly. They offer an alternative solution and bring out another copy of her armor (stamped 0001 on the elbow guard) and offer to loan her the copy while they work on the original. She accepts the offer.

The following morning, the heroes get a call for help from an independent hero known as Surge. He is based in the Mendocino area and this morning saw what looked like a meteor fall into the state park. Upon investigation, he discovered what looked like a spaceship in the cult compound and a battle going on between two forces. Now a fire is raging out of control in the area and it is too much for him to deal with alone.

The heroes quickly go north to meet Surge. The group meets with the local head of the National Guard, and they are given official status to take whatever means are necessary to stop the fire – including entering the cult compound.

Iron Wind refuses to enter the cult property. Instead, she is flown up high at the property line by the Messenger so that she has a good vantage point to control the weather. She stops the wind and creates a tremendous rainstorm to battle the fire.

The rest of the heroes enter the compound and discover evidence of a huge battle. At the center of the compound, they find the spot where a ship of some kind had landed – but they do not find evidence of any combatants. They do find (and take samples of) piles of goop with electronic components mixed in. They are able to save one of the buildings in the central compound by depriving it of oxygen and allowing the fire to burn out.

The heroes fan out from the center in the search for survivors of the fire. As they move farther out, they find further evidence of a running battle. They also begin finding dead bodies – lots of them. The dead appear to be cultists ranging in age from infant to aged. They do find 13 survivors of various ages. A mental scan of the survivors reveals that the ship(s) were manned by humans in silver combat suits accompanied by a large black man in an African tribal costume complete with an axe and shrunken human skulls attached to his belt.

After the survivors are evacuated and the fire departments and National Guard arrive to help contain the fire, the heroes search the main compound area. In the ruins of the main building, they discover a sealed steel door in the floor. Once opened, it reveals a spiral staircase going down that leads to a reception area. After taking a further trip down an elevator shaft, they discover an underground medical facility containing human sized tube-containers similar (but not identical) to the ones that they were imprisoned in on Doctor Apocalypse’s island.

Following a noise, the heroes open a door to find Longhorn Tex! He expresses annoyance that it has taken them so long to catch up with him. Not fooled by the illusion, the heroes are prepared when the façade drops and they are attacked by a group of metahumans in the room. They find themselves facing Monsoon, Headliner, Wildcat, the Beholder, Longarm, and Morningstar. A titanic battle erupts with tremendous damage being dished out on both sides. During the fight, the heroes also discover another invisible opponent: the Wild Boar.

Once the Morningstar is defeated by a concentrated attack by the heroes, the Beholder runs to his prone body and teleports away. The remainder of the villains flee, leaving the unconscious forms of Monsoon and Wildcat to be taken into custody.

A further search of the facility reveals the following information:

There were two obvious groups ransacking the facility – the inhabiting group that evacuated while grabbing everything that they could and destrying what they cound not; and the attacking group that ransacked what was left.

Exit of the Insect

The Messenger calls Agent Michaels to see about a getting warrant to search the church compound. Michaels says that it could take 2-3 days to go through official channels – and that asking Crimson for it would be faster.

Firebug talks Iron Wind into posing as disillusioned metahumans looking to join the ‘Religious Organization’ (CULT!). They fly toward the compound with Photon Wave and the Valkyrie trailing behind in one of their cars to be onsite in the event that the pair needs help getting out of the compound

Disciple Aaron Cowler returns the Messenger’s earlier call to the compound. The two set a meeting for early that afternoon at the Oberon Building.

Halfway to the complex, Iron Wind suddenly realizes that Firebug has no intention of leaving the cult once he is inside. She orders him to the ground and waits for the others to catch up so they can revisit the plan. They opt to wait where they are until after Messenger’s meeting with Cowler.

Messenger practices for the meeting going over his expected questions and responses. He uses Amber to monitor the meeting to discover any attempts of mind control or other influence by Cowler.

Disciple Cowler meets with Messenger. He states that he is familiar with the Doctor, but does not know where he is at present. He offers to set up a meeting that afternoon with Reverend Kinkaid if that would be helpful. The Messenger accepts and alerts the rest of the team.

The Eclipse meets at the gate to the compound. After identifying themselves, they are met by Initiate Timothy Clarke. He escorts them to the central compound in a unique vehicle – a floating tube similar to a subway car. It appears to utilize technology similar to maglev, but there are no rails or other guides. Photon Wave is especially interested in the technology.

On the trip to the compound’s center, they do see evidence of significant development hidden under the canopy.

They meet with Reverend Kinkaid (escorted by two bodyguards) in the main building. After pleasantries, he tells the heroes that Mayfair was granted use of his yacht (Mount Sinai) for personal reasons. Mayfair is not a member of the Church, but rather an old personal friend.

As heroes are escorted back to the vehicle, they are ambushed in the central compound by Tim, the bodyguards, and several invisible or hard to see opponents. The cultists are joined by several of the armored troops that attacked the heroes at the Oberon Building a week prior.

Firebug attempts to move the Reverend out of harm’s way, but is encased in ice. Kinkaid spends the battle in a state of near-immobility on the periphery of the fight.

The heroes are able to identify Tim, the bodyguards (Comet and Lupus), and the minuscule Hummingbird. They are unable to find or identify at least three other combatants.

Taking significant damage, the heroes are forced to flee. Firebug avoids the grasp of the Messenger and opts to remain behind. The heroes feel that the former juvenile delinquent is lost to them.

Upon their return to the Oberon Building, they discover that a warrant for a search of the compound had arrived that afternoon from Crimson.

Agent Michaels is called to see if MEDUSA can track down Kinkaid’s boat.

1. Flower Power cries out that another armed force is approaching the city – a force that appears to be led by another ‘god’
2. Isabella gives Necalli a shocked look as she suddenly realizes that Xipe Totec is no longer imprisoned in the Mexican’s mind.
3. Necalli suddenly activates his magic absorption power – eliminating all magical abilities within the temple
4. Photon Wave calls out that someone is running up the stairs into the temple

Flower Power and FireBug exit the temple to separate the Aztec and Spanish armies in an attempt to preserve the timeline

A small group of priests burst into the temple, and with Necalli, attack the remaining heroes.

Necalli’s first action is to release the pent-up magic in a burst. As a result of the burst, the two ‘gods’ disappear and Juan is knocked comatose.

The heroes successfully defeat Necalli and the priests and they learn that Xipe Totec overwhelmed Necalli’s mind months ago and that Necalli has been unwillingly working for the aliens planing this since then.

Xipe Totec returned to the past while Necalli engineered the escape of the other 2 aliens from their confinement. Xipe Totec defeated the small force that Cortes sent to defeat Narvaez – and taking Narvaez’s place, went to Cuba to get more soldiers to defeat Cortes.

Looking from the top of the temple, the heroes see a small force of glowing Cubans advancing ahead of the main force – obviously heading to strike at Cortes.

The Eclipse defeats the force of enhanced Cubans – but at high cost – Still Hammer, the Valkyrie, and Iron Wind all lay unconscious and the remaining heroes are sorely wounded and exhausted.

Is It a Dream?

Still Hammer finds himself drifting and then approaching a torch-lit temple room. He arrives to find Juan and Necalli talking with the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl.

Quetzalcoatl confirms that Necalli has been sorely used by the aliens and that Juan is on the razor’s edge between life and death.

He also says that the three aliens must be defeated here and now or all creation could be lost. Quetzalcoatl cannot, however, act directly and must instead act through agents. He offers Still Hammer the opportunity to act as the Aztec Champion – a role that will come with some sacrifice.

Still Hammer accepts and is given the mantle of Quetzalcoatl providing him with amazing powers including the power to heal his friends.

The Final Confrontation

Once healed by Still Hammer, the members of the Eclipse charge the approaching force. Still Hammer generates an illusory army of Aztec warriors to confront the Cubans while the Eclipse attacks the aliens.

A titanic struggle between the opposing forces erupts with tremendous damage dealt on both sides – but the heroes are victorious.

In the aftermath of the battle, Quetzalcoatl appears with the unconscious forms of Juan and Necalli and asks Still Hammer if he is ready to make his sacrifice. Quetzalcoatl places one hand upon Still Hammer’s brow and stretches his other hand towards the 3 aliens. A soft glow encompasses the area which grows steadily stronger until everyone is blinded by the glow. Then suddenly, the glow is gone and the heroes find themselves on a highway in Mexico City.

They return to the Oberon Building to discover that they have been gone from their own time less than 3 hours.

Coming Next….

The heroes begin the healing process along with the repair of Iron Wind’s armor and the charging of Photon Wave’s technological gear.

True to form, the heroes of the Eclipse debated for some time before deciding to hop through time. The ultimate decision was to try to arrive at a point in time prior to the final battle and eliminate the gods before they can have an effect on the time stream.

After a few jumps to narrow down their date range, the group picked a date and set out. They were able to identify the main temple from a distance and flew in quickly to catch the Aztecs by surprise.

An amazingly brief fight ensued with titanic blows from the heroes shredding the Aztec’s defenses.

When the dust settled, the two gods along with Toa Culcum and a dozen Aztec warriors were lying unconscious.

Necalli opened up a psychic switchboard and announced that the battle between the Aztecs and the Spaniards is being joined – surprisingly, the Aztecs are issuing forth from the city to attack the entrenched Spanish forces…

And there is still the question about what to do with the unconscious gods…

Meanwhile, Still Hammer has recovered from the attack. The group is amazed to discover that he can speak!

Jose and Isabella both run up and hug him. They reveal that they are familiar with Toa Culcum under a different name, Xiuhcoatl, and that when they last encountered him, he was responsible for an attempt to restore the Aztec Mexica Empire back to prominence.

MEDUSA arrives to take the Neanderthal into custody. A quick interrogation reveals two things. First: that Xiuhcoatl disappearing with a god was NOT a part of the plan. They were told that they could release magical energy from Still Hammer that would enhance their own abilities. Second: that he did not expect to stay captured for long because his partners would be quick to free him. Still hammer gives MEDUSA the odd Neural Dampener that was used on him for investigation.

Isabella demonstrates a limited healing ability.

The group debates for a while about where Xiuhcoatl and the god were likely to go next. Still Hammer reveals that there were two additional gods that were imprisoned in teh same way by two other hosts. The other hosts were hidden in Portugal and Brazil.

During the debate, Still Hammer is suddenly struck with a searing headache that drives him to his knees. The Messenger quickly accesses the internet and quickly discovers the blossoming story of an attack in Portugal. The two villains attacked a hospital emergency room where many were injured amd one was killed. A quick trip to Portugal reveals that the dead man is one of the other hosts: Eztli, the host imprisoning the god Huitzilopochtli.

The group immediately travels to Brasilia and search the hospital where they find the third host (Necalli) who is recovering from the effects of the attacks on both Still Hammer and Eztli. The Eclipse takes him from the hospital and then start bouncing randomly across the world trying to hide their location from Xiuhcoatl while still allowing them rest time to heal.

While hiding in Mississippi, the children detect a temporal flux and create a protective bubble to protect the gathered heroes from its effects. After the flux passed, it is discovered that the United States (along with the rest of the North and South hemispheres) has been transformed into an Aztec empire. Something in the past has been changed to alter the course of history.

The Eclipse travels to Greece where they discover that the rest of the world has been stopped at 16th century technology. Use of the libraries in Greece, the heroes were able to determine what they believe to be the altered event. In this timeline, Hernan Cortes and the Tlaxcalans were defeated by the Aztecs at the siege of Tenochtitlan.

It's About Darn Time!

Following is a summation of the final episode of last season – I apologize profusely for my failure to document the episode while it is still in my mind. As a sign of my contrition, I offer a reward for anyone that is using the site!

Unimpressed with the efforts of the Eclipse to locate Doctor Mayfair, the grumpy representative of the AMEA set a deadline of 1 week to achieve the goal. No specific penalty was mentioned, but the threat seemed ominous.

Following the heroes’ last trip to Beaumont, one of the members of the BIO-Deen security force visits the heroes at their Headquarters. They have done some background checks on the team and have determined that their infiltration attempts in Beaumont were not malicious. He provides the following information for the heroes:

Doctor Orson Mayfair no longer employed at Bio-Deen

They are aware of the location of a Cabin in Colorado where Dr. Mayfair went on his private time

The Eclipse visits the Cabin

The heroes find the cabin abandoned with an extremely thick layer of dust over everything indicating that no one has been here in months

After a very careful search, the heroes find a receipt for the Los Diablos restaurant less than a week old

A Visit to Los Diablos

The heroes enjoy a sumptuous feast and make the acquaintance of Alde Romero, the owner of Los Diablos. With the assistance of Romero, the heroes search through the security footage and identify Mayfair and get a look at his dining companion: The man was 6’1” tall with grey hair and an obnoxious handlebar moustache.

Utilizing their contacts with the Pacifico police department, they are able to identify Mayfair’s companion through facial recognition software as Reverend Charles Kinkaid. Rev. Kinkaid is the founder of the Church of Divine Resurrection. The church is located on a large private ranch on the outskirts of Mendocino Woodlands State Park in northern California. The church is widely considered to be a cult.

The heroes were attacked at their headquarters by seven armored assailants. Three of the assailants displayed the ability to teleport. There also was one additional assailant that demonstrated the abilities of Flight, Invisibility, and Power Blast.

While the 4 armored attackers concentrated on doing damage, the three teleporters each attacked a single target until a hit was made, then he would teleport away – returning a few seconds later and attacking a new target. Once all of the heroes were successfully hit by the teleporters, the foes returned to teleport out with the other troops. The heroes hypothesize that the teleporters were collecting samples of each of their DNA.
The (presumed) flying Metahuman also escaped.

In the center of HQ, two Hispanic children appear out of nowhere. They identify themselves as Jose (13) and Isabella (7). They warn that Still Hammer is in grave danger and that if he falls the end of the world will come

Meanwhile… At the University

Still Hammer meets with Dr Cullins and Dr Ella Sabin. Cullins recommends that Hammer utilize the art of hypnosis as a tool to dig out the memories that are locked in his head. Dr. Sabin is an accomplished hypnotist and is happy to help with the project. Hammer agrees to go under hypnosis while Flower Power observes. While Hammer is under hypnosis, Dr. Cullins places a Neural Dampener on his head. Immediately, Hammer goes into convulsions and lets out an articulated scream of pain. The temperature in the room drops twenty degrees and a sooty cloud begins to form over Hammer’s head.

Cullins roars that Itztlacoliuhqui the Aztec god of Blind Justice is about to emerge!

and... Back to Beaumont!

The heroes of the Eclipse stand over the body of Doctor Apocalypse and debate what their next course of action is. Should they attempt to remove the gem, destroy it (and possibly the Doctor too), or leave it where it is? The Messenger grabs the gem to see if it is embedded into the skull or if it is on the surface of his skin when he starts to pull on it. Flower Power breaks his grip on the gem and the hero shrugs off the vestiges of external control.

While they debate, they hear several odd noises coming from the hallway – investigation of the hallway reveals nothing out of the ordinary – but suddenly bursting from one of the cell doors comes Bounceback, Windshear, Dwarf Star, and Magnus (who is wearing a snazzy new suit!).

Battle between the groups is quickly joined. The Messenger attempts to leave with Apocalypse’s body, but at the last second realizes that the exit door is blocked by a shimmering ebon curtain. Correctly surmising that the curtain is a portal to some unknown place, he stays with the Doctor in the hallway (dodging other portals as he navigates the battle).
The battle is not going well for the exhausted heroes – and then gets worse as continuing sounds from another cell turn out to be the sounds of Echo freeing Blok from the ball of metal. As the two bruisers join the fight, the Eclipse seems doomed.

Finally, forced to join the fight, the Messenger sets Apocalypse’s body on the floor. Another portal opens beneath the Doctor and his body disappears. The remaining villains exit through the various portals and the portals slam shut. When the dust clears, all of the villains are gone except for the unconscious form of Magnus. They assist in the cleanup of demonic forces in the MEDUSA HQ – assisted by Agent Michaels who is found alive and battling demons in his weaponized wheelchair.

The Eclipse uses the next few days for rest and recuperation. Iron Wind utilizes the Pinyin Properties metal working division to repair her armor, and Still Hammer continues his research into Aztec rituals searching for a clue to his past. During his research, he discovers that an archaeologist that is an expert in the Aztec culture is currently lecturing at Pacifico University. He arranges to meet with the expert, a Doctor Mark Cullins.
Doctor Cullins is very open to meeting with the hero and spends significant time with Still hammer over the course of the next couple of days. Cullins also introduces the hero to the other members of the lecture team: Archeologist Doctor Armand Craver, Egyptologist Doctor Ella Sabin, Marine Biologist Doctor Ronald Britch, and Pacifico University Professor (and Archaeologist) Doctor Donald Raglan.

It is during this idyllic period that the team receives a call from Mister Crimson who demands an update on their search for Doctor Orson Mayfair. Not having anything to report irritates the AMEA man and he threatens that they had better come up with the information.
The heroes return to Beaumont. FireBug and Iron Wind (in civilian disguise) explore the forested area around the BIO-Deen campus looking for a vantage point from which to watch the access road so that they can identify Dr. Mayfair as he enters or exits the facility. As they approach the campus, they are greeted telepathically and are warned that they are trespassing on private property and that they should leave immediately. They test the telepath to make certain that they are dealing with a living being and not some kind of machine and they retreat from the area. The pair then return to the area with the idea of blocking the access road with a small tree – but are warned back again by the telepath. Furthermore, they are warned that they are now being watched – and they quickly notice a winged form above them. They return to the town – followed all of the way by the winged form.

The remaining members of the Eclipse case town looking for a reaction from the citizenry. Photon Wave, the Valkyrie, Still Hammer, and Flower Power all enter the town as civilians. The Messenger enters separately in Superhero Garb.

The heroes go from establishment to establishment asking questions until finally, the Sheriff approaches them and intimates that they should perhaps move on. The Sheriff follows them to subsequent establishments. Still Hammer decides to test the Sheriff and he breaks off apart from the group and enters a different bar. Shortly after he arrives, a Deputy Sheriff joins him. Getting frustrated with the rigmarole, Still Hammer makes it appear that the lights have gone out… several times. After dismissing the darkness, the Deputy takes a good look at his face and recognizes him as a superhero. He then leaves the bar informing the Sheriff of the identity of the hero.

The Sheriff gets the message and then is able to recognize the heroes as the Eclipse. He lets them know that they are recognized and leaves. About this time Firebug and Iron Wind return to the city with their shadow in tow. The Messenger flies up to meet the flying form and discovers him to be a metahuman in private employ of BioDeen. He calls himself Raptor. After a brief conversation, they part ways.

Finally fed up with the small town ways of Beaumont, the Eclipse returns to Pacifico.

Following the battle with Doctor Apocalypse, Flower Power gathers up the small boy found at the battle site and goes with him to the hospital. More than one hero realizes that her owl is nowhere to be seen.

The rest of the heroes return to the Oberon Building to recover from the fight. They do more research on BIO-Deen and meet a GEMINI geneticist named Dr. Abe Jenson. What they learn is thatthe company is not only secretive and paranoid, they are also guarded by an army of lawyers who restrict information through the use of strict Non-Disclosure Agreements. They decide that the only way to get information about the facility is to sneak in… and unfotunately, this team is not very adept at covert operations.

Another day passes and the heroes dither over how to address the assignemnt they have been given by Crimson when they all receive a distress call from Agent Michaels saying that the MEDUSA detention building is under attack. The Eclipse immediately make their way to the MEDUSA building, but see no sign of an attack outside. They burst into the building and are immediately confronted by a group of seven demons that are in the process of consuming a meal of recently killed MEDUSA agents.

The Eclipse makes short work of the demons – exhibiting excellent teamwork against a giant one with ice powers – and are then immediately confronted by 45 more demons. These demons are all small and imp-like and the heroes are able to make short work of them. They work their way into the complex and encounter another group of demons battling four MEDUSA agents. These demons are bigger and stronger than the others that the heroes have fought, but they still prove no match for the heroes’ might.

One of the MEDUSA agents tells the heroes that the demons are all coming from Doctor Apocalypse’s cell. It seems that the Doctor’s willpower ability is necessary to keep the portal to the demon world closed – and the Neural Dampener has nullified the Doctor’s abilty to keep the demons out. The agent guides the heroes to the cell.

Inside Apocalyse’s cell, the Eclipse finds a large demon surrounded by 5 smaller, winged glowing demons standing over the body of Doctor Apocalypse. The large demon’s hand is resting on the gem. The heroes quickly discover two things – first, the five glowing demons serve to defend the large demon and they have to eliminate them first — and second, the large demon can pull additional demon’s from the gem!

A titanic battle erupts and ends with the heroes standing battered above the unconscious form of Doctor Apocalypse facing the dilemma of what to do next…

Two is Company, Three is a Crowd --- Five is Overkill!

The Secret Service quickly bundles Marc Sebastian into an ambulance and leaves the scene. The heroes of the Eclipse assist the local police in crowd control following the battle at the political event.

The following day, the Eclipse receives a visit from Agent Michaels of MEDUSA. Accompanying the former superhero are two members of the Secret Service and another man introduced only as Crimson (that’s ‘Mr. Crimson’ to you!!). Crimson is an agent with the AMEA – the American Metahuman Enforcement Agency. The AMEA is a secretive government agency affliated in some way with MEDUSA. None of the heroes had ever heard of it.

Crimson quickly takes charge of the meeting. He informs the heroes that this situation has been classified at Security Level 2. Any disclosure of the facts they are about to learn to an outside agency will be considered treason.

Crimson tells them that Congressman Sebastian is indeed not human. Their labs, in the brief time that they have had, have determined that the Congressman is actually a biologically-grown android — not fully a machine, but not fully biological either.

Sebastian has passed a physical in the past during his enlistment into the US Army indicating that the Congressman at one point was human and was swapped out for the android at some time in the past. Sebastian is not married and no girlfriend at present.

The Secret Service will handle the job of tracking the Congressman’s past movements to determine when a switch could best have been made. The heroes are tasked with locating the source of the android.

Agent Micheals chimes in that MEDUSA’s databases reveal that there is only one person they are aware of that has the capability of growing this kind of android — Dr. Orson Mayfair – a scientist with BIO-Deen. BIO-Deen is a highly secretive (paranoid!) corporation located just outside the town of Beaumont Utah.

The meeting breaks up and the visitors leave. Agent Michaels is the last out the door. As he is leaving, he stops, turns in his chair and says, “Don’t mess around with that guy (Crimson) — he is dangerous”.

The heroes begin discussions on how to invesigate BIO-Deen when their minds are assaulted by a very powerful mental contact from Doctor Apocalypse.

INSECTS! YOUHAVEDESTROYEDYEARS OF PREPARATIONWITHYOURMEDDLING. YOUHAVEFORCED ME TO LOWERMYSELF TO DEALWITHYOUPERSONALLY. PREPAREYOURSELVES, FORNOW I WILLCRUSHYOULIKETHEINSIGNIFICANTBUGSTHATYOUARE. YOUHAVE 24 HOURS And then the contact is gone.

The heroes divide their forces:

The Messenger scours Pacifico looking for an area that is in need of a little ‘urban development’. With the help of the police, he has the area evacuated in anticipation of a battle.

Photon Wave, the Valkyrie, and Flower Power travel incognito to Beaumont where they discover the typical small western town. The only odd things that they find are a large complex of dormitories (BIO-Deen employees make up a large percentage of the town’s population), and a decided evasion from the locals any time the BIO-Deen campus is mentioned.

The following day, the heroes gather at the site that the Messenger selected for the battle. MEDUSA agents have the area closed off so that civilians are unable to interfere. 24 hours to the second after Apocalypse’s contact, he flies into the battlefield. The fight commences, but to the heroes’ dismay, Apocalypse separates himself into five smaller versions of himself — and they all come equipped with a power blast.

The Eclipse manage to knock out one of the five doctors – but they sustain heavy losses as the Messenger, the Valkyrie, and FireBug are all knocked unconscious and Iron Wind suffers heavy damage to her armor. As the remaining heores (Photon Wave, Iron Wind, Still Hammer, and Flower Power prepare to continue what they feel to be a hopeless fight – the cavalry arrives in the form of a large Duesenberg. The antique car roars up and disgorges the Red Fedora, Agent Alpha, and Pandora Chase of the Paragon Society.

The hero teams join forces again and successfully knock out a second Apocalypse – but the remaining villains concentrate their fire on the powerful Paragon members and they are quickly neutralized.

All again looks hopeless as Photon Wave and Iron Wind are also knocked unconscious leaving Still Hammer and Flower Power to deal with three Apocalypses. The Doctor laughs at their pitiful resistance and begins to monologue. Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light and all of the members of the Eclipse find themselves fully healed (the Messenger quips that this is the first time in weeks that he has been healthy).

Revitalized and rejuvenated, the heroes of the Eclipse are able to successfully defeatthe remaining Apocalypses. As the last Doctor falls unconscious, they all shimmer and fade back into one full-sized Apocalypse. MEDUSA agents swarm in and place a Neural Dampener on his head to prevent him from accessing his powers. He is bundled off in MEDUSA custody and the Paragon members are taken to the hospital.

It is only then that the heroes discover a surprise in the rubble – a small (3 year-old) polynesian boy unconscious in the rubble. All eyes turn to Flower Power.

In the days following their climactic battle with Fracture, the heroes of the Eclipse spent a couple of days regaining some much needed strength.

Agent Michaels introduces a new member to the Eclipse, The FireBug, who will serve as a replacement for their slain comrade.

Information learned during these 2 days:

Photon Wave attempted to contact the Henchmen.com website only to receive a very politely worded reply that “The originating address of this Henchmen Request appears to be that of a licensed Superhero Organization. At this time, we are going to have to refuse you the service of our henchmen. We do hope that your activities will continue to drive the need for quality Henchmen.”

Further attempts by Photon Wave to track the location of the website were unsuccessful as the programmers of the site appear to be internet savants, redirecting the internet traffic through an impenetrable maze of servers across the world.

A thorough search of the California Republic base reveals an identical teleport pad to the one that the heroes discovered in the cavern beneath Doctor Apocalypse’s island. An examination of the equipment leads the heroes to believe that the machine is hard-coded with destination possibilities as opposed to being keyed to geographic coordinates.

The Eclipse decide to visit the site of Doctor Apocalypse’s Island to determine if the Island is truly missing or if it is cloaked from the satellites in some way. They fly in low carrying a speedboat. Flower Power and Firebug both provide significant shielding in the forms of a light barrier and a fire barrier respectively.

As the heroes fly within ten miles of the island location, they begin to suffer barrages of missiles in 15 second intervals. The missiles cause the heroes to continually replenish their shields. Unfortunately for the heroes, as they get closer, the missiles increase in power. The Messenger grabs all of the slower moving heroes and kicks up the speed to reach the island before the missiles grow powerful enough to break through the shields to the heroes behind.

As they approach, the heroes find the Recreation Island, but no sign of the main island. The Messenger flies through the physical space where the main island used to be to verify that it has not been made invisible in some manner. Landing on the Recreation Island, behind the three air defense stations, the heroes see the stations sink back down to their inactive status.

A thorough search of the island reveals yet another teleport pad – only apparently, the villains using this facility were not too certain of remembering the machine’s settings, the heroes find a list with coordinates pinned to the wall: (The heroes grab the list)

Cavern… 1 – 8

Mansion… 3 – 4

CalRep-1… 4 – 4

CalRep-2… 9 – 2

Fearing that further delay might lead to an Apocalypse victory with his deadline looming, the Eclipse decide to make use of the teleport pad. They first attempt to travel to the CalRep-2 location. Flower Power, the Messenger, Valkyrie, and Still Hammer step onto the pads while Photon Wave sets the dials and activates the machine.

The 4 heroes teleport away. Photon Wave looks on with a feeling of chagrin as he pulls the handle. As the handle reaches the end of its pull, it springs back to the start position (not unlike a slot machine) and the dials all spin around to random values. The hero realizes that it is a good thing that they know the coordinates that they sent the other heroes. Photon wave resets the machine he remaining heroes step onto the pads and the lever is triggered magnetically by Iron Wind and they follow the others…
into a very, very dark room. Photon Wave immediately ‘lights up’ revealing Flower Power in the fetal position on the floor, whimpering in the dark. They quickly recognize the room as being identical to the one in the other CalRep base. They move through the complex to the power generator room and quickly get the power going. A search of the base reveals that it has not been inhabited for at least several days. The only item of note that they find is a photograph of Bounceback with an older European woman.

GPS reveals their location to be north of San Francisco. They call MEDUSA to alert them to the location of the base and MEDUSA agents quickly converge on the location to take charge of it.
A teleport to CalRep-1 takes the heroes to the California Republic base that they originally found.

After a brief debate on the merits of heroism, the Eclipse decides to use the teleport pads to find the island. They use the coordinates for ‘Mansion’ and teleport into a plush room inside a large building. Immediately noticing the security cameras, the Messenger remarks that stealth does not appear to be an option and the heroes charge out of the building to discover that they are indeed on Doctor Apocalypse’s island.

They also discover that Doctor Apocalypse has been using his time since their last encounter building a gigantic spherical metal framework on the western beach. The framework is swarming with Doc’s technician androids while Apocalypse himself hovers in the center directing the work.

The heroes roar into combat, splitting their attacks between Apocalypse and the superstructure. In a matter of minutes, the superstructure suffered critical damage and collapsed into a mangled pile of metal (and androids). Enraged, the good Doctor (Photon Wave: “Wait… where’s the ‘BAD’ Doctor”) attacks the heroes in earnest. Ineffective against the non-corporal Doctor to this point, the heroes decide to run away… um, Retreat. They quickly fly out of the range of Apocalypse and his air defenses and back to the safety of Pacifico

In the morning, Amber Poniard reports to the Valkyrie that she just received a strange message over the help line: “O Geronimo No Minor Ego”. The heroes immediately recognize the phrase as being a palindrome and jump into action.

It takes a very brief brainstorming session to make the guess that ‘Geronimo’ refers to San Geronimo – and ‘No Minor Ego’ probably refers to San Geronimo’s favorite son Marc Sebastian – a candidate in the current Republican Primary for the Presidency. Turning on the news, they are quick to learn that Sebastian is giving a campaign speech this very day in San Francisco.

It takes no time at all to get in communication with the secret service – and with Agent Michael’s assistance, the heroes are inserted into the detail. The speech is being given at a huge outdoor amphitheater and over 50,000 people are expected.

The Messenger and Still Hammer stand on stage with the candidate. Photon Wave and the Valkyrie take up locations off-stage. Flower Power and Iron wind take stations on top of the amphitheater, and Firebug resumes human form and joins the crowd.

The speech is going well when a sudden thunderstorm pops up. As the first raindrops hit the stage, a member of the audience throws off his outer coat and screams a sonic blast at the candidate. Simultaneously, another supervillain flies directly into the Messenger, and a third villain detaches himself from the lighting fixtures to attack Flower Power and Iron Wind. Another audience member transforms into a 9’ tall gorilla to join the attack.

Sebastian is almost knocked into unconsciousness by the fury of Cacophony’s attack, but Flower Power is able to create a light box around the candidate to protect him from further attack. The villains press their attack – and it becomes increasingly obvious that there is another, unseen villain controlling the weather and battering Iron Wind with intense gusts of wind. Even with the help of the unseen villain, the attackers are totally outmatched by the heroes. Cacophony is knocked unconscious by Firebug. Morpheus is knocked unconscious as he attempted to escape down a drainage pipe. Silent rage attempted to fly away, but was quickly outdistanced and knocked out by the Messenger. The Silverback was able to escape into the crowd, transforming back into human form as he did so.

The heroes congregate on the stage along with the conscious members of the secret service detail. Flower Power removes the protective covering, and the surrounding people are amazed to see that the candidate is bleeding heavily… but he is bleeding a milky, tan substance instead of blood. Marc Sebastian is some kind of android!

A Hero Falls

Jetting back to Pacifico, the heroes of the Eclipse quickly do battle with several groups of Guardian robots – defeating them easily.

The battles in the street lead to a climactic fight with Fracture and a half dozen Guardians. The heroes again easily defeat the robots, but the might of Fracture appears to be too much for the assembled heroes to overcome. The darkest moment comes when with one tremendous blow, Fracture crushes the White Fist ending the hero’s life.

The joint efforts of the two hero groups successfully defeat the villain. Rescue crews take over and the heroes split up between helping with damage control and a quick trip to the hospital for themselves.

Among the significant damage done to the city, the heroes discover that their headquarters was burned to the ground. The members of the paragon Society invite the members of the Eclipse to stay temporarily in their elegant headquarters.

Over the next 24 hours, MEDUSA informs the heroes that the Island Base of Doctor Apocalypse appears to have disappeared on the satellite images… the recreation island appears to still be there (with its air defense systems) but the main island is gone.

The next day, Lee Sung Pinyin visits the heroes and offers them permanent headquarters. He escorts them to the Oberon Building where he offers them floors 56-58 along with the roof access. The space has all of the amenities that the heroes have hoped for — including bunks that align the body’s rhythems to aid in the healing process.

Another trouble alert comes in regarding costumed individuals attacking the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. The heroes of the Eclipse arrive to find a dozen desert-theme costumed villains attacking the bankk being led by a park ranger. In a matter of minutes, the heroes defeat the majority of the villains when the alarm goes off inside the bank.

The Messenger enters the bank and meets another supervillain exiting the vault. After a brief battle with Death Valley, the villain explodes into a cloud of Borax and vanishes.

A search of the captured villains outside of the bank reveal a business card for Henchmen.com — a website that proves to be a site where villains can hire themed henchmen for their criminal enterprises.

The heroes of the Eclipse spend a fitful night on the side of the hill – only to be woken when the Countess communicates with Flower Power telepathically to let them know thatg they have been found.

The heroes exit their aerie to find an electric purple dome covering the hill — a shadowy figure hovering above the dome. Inside the dome, they heroes do battle with the Countess, Old Sparky, Blok, Dwarf Star, and an opponant wearing Iron Wind’s armor. The heroes easily overwhelm the villains again. Iron Wind magnetically strips her armor from Echo and uses all of the lighting equipment from the athletic fields to imprison Blok in a mound of metal.

Dwarf Star and Echo are knocked unconscious, Sparky teleports away, and the Countess is pinned to the ground by the Valkyrie’s gravity power.

With the capture of the final villain, the dome dissipates and Doctor Apocalypse walks down from the sky.

“You have fought well, but I have come too far to fail and your continued presence here is… inconvenient. I do not, however, wish to dirty my hands on such insignificant creatures as you.”

“I have sent my servant ”/wikis/fracture" class=“wiki-page-link”> Fracture to Pacifico with my Guardian troops. I allow you 30 seconds to gather as many of my defeated minions as you can and depart for California before I destroy you. Your time starts… now."

As he finishes speaking, he drops the Messenger‘s cadecus and the team’s communicators to the ground.

Flower Power immediately creates a jet plane out of light and the heroes gather all of the captured villains and take off for home. As they speed away from the island, their communicators begin blaring with calls from MEDUSA. The heroes check in and learn that Fracture and around a dozen Guardian robots are wreaking havok in the city. MEDUSA arranges for the heroes to drop their captives at the US Navy Aircraft Carrier Idaho.

After a brief stop on the carrier, the Eclipse jet back toward Pacifico.

Feeling more confident after their rest, the heroes of the Eclipse decide to take the advice of Flower Power and fly to the top of the hill where she indicates their equipment can be found in a large mansion. Photon Wave and the Valkyrie volunteer to stay in their hiding place to guard the two prisoners (Old Sparky and Magnus).
Reaching the top of the hill, the heroes do find a large mansion, and indeed, the term ‘large’ is an understatement – the doorways are 9’ tall!
Also, from the height of the top of the hill, the heroes can see that they are indeed on an island. The island is roughly kidney-shaped with two large hills. Both hills have what appear to be mansions atop them. The island is also ringed by no fewer than 6 defensive missile launchers. A smaller island lies off to the south.
They quickly perform a search of the ground floor of the mansion looking for their equipment and are surprised in a large gymnasium by a trio of villains: Blok, Rumble, and Dwarf Star. To add insult to injury, Rumble is using Photon Wave’s Devitalization Ray and Force Field generator, Dwarf Star is carrying the Valkyrie’s Shield, and Blok is wielding Curtana.
Rumble and Blok immediately converge their attacks on the White Fist dropping the hero to unconsciousness and near-death! Dwarf Star unsuccessfully attempts to pin Iron Wind to the ground using her gravity projector. Still Hammer encases himself and Dwarf Star in darkness where the two battle ineffectively against each other. Several times the villainess escaped the darkness, but the hero immediately reshaped the darkness to re-encompass her.
The other heroes combine their attacks to take Rumble and the devitalization ray out of the fight and then combine their attacks against Blok reducing him to unconsciousness and causing Curtana to drop from the villain’s grasp.
Still Hammer drops the darkness so that the team can battle Dwarf Star as one, but the heroes are surprised to see Blok stand right back up again.
Still Hammer reestablishes the darkness around himself and Dwarf Star – but not before she is able to finally pin Iron Wind to the ground using gravity control. The Messenger and Flower Power battle Blok, but it becomes rapidly aware to the heroes that in order to defeat the villain, they will have to kill him as he seems willing to fight beyond exhaustion.
The Messenger quickly gathers Curtana and Photon Wave’s equipment along with the pinned Iron Wind and announces that it is time to leave. Still Hammer plunges the entire room into darkness except a small tunnel to the exit and the heroes successfully make their exit from the mansion returning to their hiding place in the storage sheds.
After a brief period of rest, the heroes again opt to leave for another try at their gear, but are discovered upon exiting the hiding place by a search party – the 9’ tall Fracture and the Sandblaster. The White Fist and Sandblaster trade a few blows (with the Sandblaster getting the worst of it) and the villain decides that it is time to ‘run for help’ and he takes off at high speed. The White Fist chases him down and knocks him out, but not before the villain is able to call for help.
Meanwhile, the rest of the heroes discover that Fracture is very difficult to land a blow on, so the heroes decide that retreat is the best option again. Picking up their slower members and their captives, the Eclipse takes off at high speed following White Fist leaving Fracture behind.
As the group catches up to White Fist, they are attacked from above by the disintegration ray of Windshear, but the villainess is no match for the combined might of the Eclipse and she is quickly reduced to unconsciousness and captured.
Not wanting to give Fracture a chance to catch up to them, the heroes decide to fly to the southern island to find a new place to hide. They discover that the island is a recreational complex with tennis courts, swimming pools, and rock climbing among other amenities. The hill on this island is rocky and craggy… perfect for finding nooks and crannies to hide in (especially when multiple heroes can use darkness control to increase the density of the shadows).

The heroes of the Eclipse decided not to tempt fate and teleport to a random location. Instead, they moved up the north tunnel as a unit to face the Guardian they hear coming from that direction. Working together, the team quickly reduced the Guardian to scrap metal. Continuing up the tunnel, they reach the end only to discover an elevator.

The heroes decided not to utilize the elevator and instead race back south to encounter the Guardian that they heard coming from the other direction – meeting it in the central cavern. Again, the battle was short and the Guardian was dismantled.

Following the battle, the members of the Eclipse split their efforts in the main cavern:

Photon Wave examined the computer systems and discovered that they are far more advanced in design than anything he had ever seen before

The Valkyrie studied the medical records and readouts on the main set of consoles, but she was unable to determine the nature of the pink mist or the effects that the machine had on the heroes

The Messenger and Flower Power scout out the remaining two tunnels. The tunnel to the northeast leads into another large (but empty) cavern. The river flowing through the cave enters from underneath a wall in this tunnel. The cavern to the south ends in another elevator.

After 5 minutes, the heroes decided that they had stayed in this area for too long – especially when they heard the heaving footsteps of more approaching Guardians coming from the North and South. The group decided to assault the group in the south tunnel so that they did not have to defeat both groups at once. They quickly ran down the tunnel and quickly turned 4 additional Guardians into spare parts.

Continuing down the south tunnel, they entered the elevator (noticed that there are only 2 floors being serviced) and began the lengthy ascent from the cavern. The doors opened into another cave tunnel, but a short walk led them to a hillside cave entrance. From their position on the hill, the heroes could see a road leading from the cave mouth to a small cluster of buildings below. They could also smell the salt of the ocean which was visible to their left.

Disappointed at not finding the next level of the complex (where they hoped that their equipment was taken to), the group decided to reenter the cave and work their way to the other elevator. They approached the main cavern warily – not wanting to waste additional energy battling the other group of Guardians. The group decided to allow the Messenger to fly the rest of the heroes in small groups over the top of the cavernous ceiling to the elevator in the hopes that the Guardians would not notice them.

The plan worked to an extent… on his first trip over (carrying Photon Wave and the Valkyrie), he successfully avoided detection by the 4 Guardians now guarding the north tunnel. However – he was not fortunate enough to avoid the notice of the three villains that had teleported to the pad. The Greek Hero was quickly attacked by Bounceback, Magnus, and Old Sparky.

Turning tail quickly, the Messenger carried his passengers back to the rest of the group at the elevator where they quickly piled in and began the long ascent to the surface. The escape was short-lived however as about 13 seconds into the ascent, the elevator stopped and began moving down again.

The doors opened and the Eclipse saw the three villains. Old Sparky had his hand on the elevator’s call box – apparently using his electrical powers to control the elevator. Bounceback was farther down the hall preparing to pepper the heroes with power blasts, and Magnus was in flight, barreling down the hall at top speed towards the group.

White Fist, Iron Wind, and the Messenger quickly engaged Bounceback in hand to hand combat. Recognizing the threat that White Fist’s speed and skill represent, the villain lost no time in pulverizing the hero into unconsciousness with his power blast.

Old Sparky was beset by Photon Wave, Still Hammer, and the Valkyrie suffering large amounts of damage to his armored suit. He was then pinned to the floor by the Valkyrie’s gravity control power. With Sparky pinned, the heroes looked to team up on another villain when Sparky disappeared – only to reappear farther down the hall. The group continued to trade blows with the electrical villain until in desperation, Sparky teleported away before being defeated.

Magnus attacked Flower Power relentlessly – calling her a thief and saying that she would ‘never take it away from him!’ The pair seemed evenly matched until the heroine left herself open for an easy blow from the powerful villain and she was knocked unconscious. In his rage, Magnus continued to attack Flower Power’s prone form – intent on killing her. After his first blow landed, he stiffened up like a board and flew straight up into the ceiling at maximum speed - stunned and dazed, he attempted to fly into Still Hammer, but badly misjudged his aim and slammed directly into the floor of the cavern, knocking him out.

The remaining heroes then were able to concentrate their attacks on the difficult to hit Bounceback, and after a protracted battle were finally able to knock the slippery villain out (although not before Photon Wave discovered the reason for his name – after striking him with a laser beam, the attack bounced off of the villain and struck the surprised hero!)

After breathing a sigh of relief, the members of the Eclipse were surprised to discover that Flower Power had regenerated enough to regain consciousness and to strip the costume off of Magnus. She stood before them, confidently clad in Magnus’ costume and refused to remove it. Rather than press the issue at that moment, the heroes decided to indulge her.

Realizing that they needed to find a place to rest up, the Eclipse decided to go back up the south elevator and try to rest in the small cluster of buildings below. As they prepared to exit the cave, Flower Power pointed out several security cameras that they had not noticed previously and suggested that the group deal with them before exiting the cave.

They made their way down to the buildings, which they discovered to be a series of storage building with spare parts for the Guardians, robotic technicians and other technological devices. The Messenger suggested that he fly the two captives back to MEDUSA headquarters (“It should only take a few minutes!”) when Flower Power informed him that he would be attacked by the defense missiles. She also insisted that their equipment is probably in the mansion. When pressed to say what mansion she was referring to, the Heroine responded that she is sure Doctor Apocalypse would be the type to have a mansion and that is where he is probably holding their gear.

But I'm not sure if this is better...

Groggily, the Messenger woke up from his coma. He found himself strapped vertically inside a glass tube inside an immense underground cavern. Looking to his left and his right, he found his teammates also strapped inside additional tubes still unconscious.

In a matter of seconds, the Messenger was able to extract himself from his tube and ignoring the alarms, began to free the rest of the Eclipse. The heroes discovered that they are indeed in a giant underground cavern on a steel platform partially covering a huge underground lake. They also discover that their various devices are missing.

The heroes split up to gather as much information about the area as they can.

Iron Wind and the White Fist began searching the area at super speed looking for their equipment.

The Messenger logged onto the nearest computer and discovered that the device that they had been strapped into is some kind of brainwashing device. He also discovered that it has a second purpose (as yet undetermined) that involved tying the victims’ brain waves together.

Photon Wave also began searching for gear, but was immediately drawn to another large piece of equipment resembling a teleportation device from ‘Star Trek’ fame. His initial investigation led him to believe that the device is indeed a teleportation device.

While Investigating the bridge off of the platform, Still Hammer hears the ‘Clomp, Clomp’ of approaching large footprints (probably in response to the various alarms they have set off). Gathering at the teleportation device, the heroes discover that the platform can only send 4 of them away at a time.
Will the heroes stay and fight whatever is approaching (without all of their super-powered devices)? Or will they risk the unknown and attempt to escape using the teleporter?

Defeat is a Dish Best Served in the Mojave

The heroes of the Eclipse coordinated their arrival at the suspected California Republic base deep in the Mojave Desert. Expecting stiff resistance, all eight members of the Eclipse participated in the raid. As their informant stated, the heroes discovered a freight elevator in a maintenance shed next to the abandoned cell phone tower.

Immediately after their arrival at the bottom of the shaft, the heroes faced two realizations: first that their communication with MEDUSA was being jammed, and secondly that they had to battle multiple waves of California Republic guardsmen which were being directed by Blok.

During the battles, the White Fist fell under the mental sway of the Countess. The Countess used the subdued hero to protect Blok from attacks that she claimed to be ‘against the rules’. She also maintained a private telepathic connection with Flower Power (imparting a piece of disturbing information that the heroine has to yet have the opportunity to share with the rest of the Eclipse.

After the defeat of Blok and the guardsmen, Flower Power’s psychic connection to the Countess was cut off with the sound of engines starting. The Messenger quickly flew outside to see if he could find the exit to the villains’ escape tunnel while the rest of the team searched the base looking for the initial side of the tunnel.

After opening a door, the heroes inside were confronted by Magnus and several CalRep guardsmen armed with the large Power Blast Rifles. This battle was over quickly – especially once the Messenger realized that he was no longer in contact with the group and returned to assist. Flower Power attempted to make mental contact with Magnus to draw needed information from his unconscious mind. To her teammates disgust, she began to remove the villain’s costume, claiming that her outfit needed an update and Magnus’ costume was perfect.

The Messenger, Still Hammer, and Iron Wind fought with Flower Power to keep her from taking the suit while the rest of the heroes continued down the hallway that the villain was guarding – discovering the base garage and the escaped tunnel. The Messenger managed to separate her from the costume after Still Hammer doused her in darkness. Once separated from the costume, the strange compulsion to wear it disappeared.

The heroes all raced down the escape tunnel with the super-fast Messenger easily outpacing even the speedy White Fist and Iron Wind. As the Messenger exited the tunnel into the desert, he became immediately aware of two things… first his wrist communicator began squawking ‘It’s a trap! They’re setting up an Ambush!!! Can you hear me?!’ Second, he noticed that multiple attacks being levied against him as he flew into the sky.

The rest of the team exited the tunnel in time to witness the Messenger take an incredible number of hits from Echo, Sandblaster, Windshear, and seven more CalRep guardsmen armed with both the Power Blast guns and slug throwers. The heroes made a valiant effort, but in the end were overcome by the sheer weight of numbers and knocked unconscious.

Following the battle with the Monterrangutan, the heroes of the Eclipse spent 2 days healing their wounds and continuing cleanup and rescue work in Monterrey. Suddenly, all received an urgent message on their wrist communicators from Amber. An unknown supervillain was wreaking havoc at the Taste of San Francisco street carnival.

As the heroes arrived on the scene, the Psycho was immediately attacked by the White Fist and Iron Wind. The Psycho let off an incredible mental blast that reduced Iron Wind to unconsciousness. The Valkyrie immediately revived her to consciousness using Curtana – but the armored maiden was fated to fare poorly in the battle as the Psycho transmutated her into a large stalk of corn!

The rest of the heroes immediately pummeled the Psycho, but were then surprised to be confronted with 10 members of the California Republic – each armed with large guns shooting Power Blasts. The CalRep agents began firing at both the heroes and the Psycho.

Between the attacks from both fronts, the Psycho was quickly defeated and three CalRep agents immediately grabbed him. The White Fist also grabbed the villain and telekinetically lifted the group into the air. 2 of the CalRep agents fell off, but White Fist had to kick the third one off. Unfortunately, when they saw the hero leaving with their target, the entire CalRep squad opened fire on White Fist knocking him out as well. Fortunately for him, the Messenger saw his dilemma and caught both the unconscious hero and villain before they fell. Evading CalRep fire, the Messenger quickly left the field of battle with his burden.

White Fist, who had regenerated, took the Psycho into custody and the Messenger returned to the battle where he found the Valkyrie unconscious from multiple attacks, Photon Wave circling back from around the rear of a building, and Iron Wind still a stalk of corn. There were also three CalRep agents assisting the escape of 3 other CalRep agents that had been blinded by Photon Wave’s blinding flash.

Between the two of them, the Messenger and Photon Wave were able to capture one CalRep agent and two of their unusual weapons. The remainder of the foes had disappeared into the city.

MEDUSA agents quickly rolled in following the completion of the battle to take the CalRep agent and the weapons into custody. Seeing a potential connection between a terrorist organization striving for an independent California and a supervillain demanding California by extortion, the members of the Eclipse joined Agent Kyle Michaels at the local MEDUSA office to interrogate the prisoner and examine the weapons.

Photon Wave joined the scientists in the lab looking over the weapons and discovered that the guns have barcodes and serial numbers! (Is this perhaps in indication that TECH is supplying the California Republic???)

The Messenger assisted in the interrogation of the agent (after stopping physical abuses on the part of MEDUSA interrogators). He learns that this was a quickly planned attack after news reports indicated that the Psycho had escaped. They were tasked with capturing the Psycho and returning him to their base for ‘recruitment’. The weapons are new arrivals to the arsenal. They had been ordered after the previous encounter with the Eclipse shoed that their weaponry was insufficient to challenge the heroes.

They learned the Location of the CalRep desert base and that there are typically 20-30 men present in the base. They also learned that there is an escape tunnel that lets out into the desert that is undetectable under the covering of the sand.

Almost as an afterthought, the White Fist asked if there are any metahumans at the base. The captive agent described six metahumans:

The Countess: the head of the installation EchoMagnus (When asked, why is he called Magnus, the agent replied that he said the voice told him to call himself that…)WindshearSandblasterBlok: head of discipline – the agent was obviously afraid of Blok

For a week following their success at the Zoo, the heroes of the Eclipse were wined and dined by Pacifico’s elite. All of the heroes enjoyed the attention (the Messenger participated in the festivities more so than the rest.)

Mid-week, Lee Zhu Pinyin sent the Eclipse the gift of a small fleet of vehicles in gratitude for saving his life and the lives of his family. They received 2 small but speedy sports cars and 1 armored van. The heroes humbly accepted the businessman’s gift.

Dr. Eric Daniels also sent the heroes a gift of sorts. Seeing the sheer volume of calls that the heroes were receiving, he sent his administrative assistant Amber Poniard to work for the Eclipse as a receptionist and secretary.

At the end of the week, all of the inhabitants of Pacifico were startled to see the image of the evil supervillain Doctor Apocalypse in the sky. In horror, they heard him utter the following threat:

Greetings Humans. I am Doctor Apocalypse and I have returned from Beyond Death. All will remember my power. In the Intervening years, I have grown even more powerful. Do NOT expect your puny heroes to defeat me again.

My Demands are Thus: In 14 days, the California cities of San Francisco, Oakland, Pacifico, Monterrey, and all of the land encompassing shall be evacuated of all citizens and ceded to me as a sovereign nation. Within 30 days following, the government of the United States will formally cede all of California to my new nation. Within 30 days following, all US citizens will be evacuated from California. Anyone left behind will be executed.

Unless the acceptance of my offer is broadcast within 24 hours, the city of Monterrey will serve as the demonstration of my wrath. Failure to comply would be unwise.

The heroes discovered that every individual across the four mentioned cities saw the phenomenon. Even more amazing, every individual saw the image as if they were looking at it straight on – no matter what direction they were facing.

Within hours of Apocalypse’s demands, California Governor Browne broadcasted a defiant rejection of the extortion attempt and called out the National Guard.

The heroes learned about Apocalypse’s history and his previous attempt to ‘liberate’ the island of Manhattan (an attempt that was foiled by the Sentinals. They also learn about the existence of Apocalypse’s son, Benjamin Apocalos.

The members of the Eclipse divided their efforts. Photon Wave researches how Apocalypse could have pulled off that amazing exhibition.
The Valkyrie and Iron Wind went to Monterrey to search for Apocalypse’s threat.
The Messenger went to the New Jersey State Penitentiary to interview Benjamin.

Photon Wave was unable to locate any technological way to duplicate the ‘mass hallucination’

The ladies began patrolling the city of Monterrey – helping to keep the peace especially with a large number of people attempting to leave the city as a result of the warning.

Benjamin Apocolos was decidedly unhelpful – not necessarily through an unwillingness to help, but having been in prison for years, he claimed to be totally unaware of any activities of his father.

A quick call was placed to Masterini to ‘consult’ on the potential use of magic by Apocalypse. Masterini was able to confirm the presence of a large magical ‘residue’ dissipating over the cities. It was definitely a magical event.

24 hours to the second following the completion of Apocalypse’s warning, a monstrous Earthquake hit the city of Monterrey – and ONLY the city of Monterrey. Although tremors were felt far away, the devastation effects of the earthquake were confined solely within the city limits.

The Heroes promptly dove into action assisting police, fire, and National Guardsmen maintain order and rescue civilians.

During rescue work, the Valkyrie found a previously undiscovered cavern underneath a collapsed factory. In the cavern, she found a 25 foot simian creature curled up as if hibernating and covered in a layer of calcified rock. The press prompty dubbed the discovery the ‘Monterrangutan’.

Meanwhile, Photon Wave studied the effects of the earthquake in an attempt to figure out how Apocalypse caused it. He discovered scientific anomalies… namely that there is no logical explanation for how this quake could have happened. The data appeared as if some huge unknown entity reached into the ground, grabbed two big handfuls of bedrock, and began shaking violently. His logical, scientific mind was flustered by his findings.

Rescue, Cleanup and Crowd Control efforts continued for the heroes the following day until they all received alerts that the Monterrangutan had been accidentally freed from the stone by excavators—- and that it was very angry… and hungry.

An Epic battle ensued with the monstrous beast as it attempted to pummel the heroes with both fists and huge chunks of rubble. Punishing damage was dealt by both sides of the combat until finally the beast lay slain at the feet of the heroes.

The members of the Eclipse concentrated their attack on Palindrome’s giant Rat. The heroes were disgusted to find that the ooze on the Rat flew off with every impact – covering them with a resrictive goo. Banding their efforts together, the heroes eventually managed to defeat the beast.

As the last blow landed, the rat began to glow with a golden light. The giant rat shrunk down to the size of a normal sewer rat and the ooze faded away to nothing. The only other relic of the encounter is the giant collar that had been worn by the rat.

Reading the collar, the heroes find the following inscription: “Senile Felines”

Immediately recognizing the palindrome, the heroes immediately ran to the Cat exhibit where they discovered a group of eight jungle cats with a faint glowing aura menacing a group of a dozen civilians.

Already tired from the earlier battle against the Rat, the heroes bravely waded into a protracted combat. The heroes manage to defeat the cats (returning them to their prior un-modified state), but two of the civilians were not fortunate – suffering injuries that required hospitalization.

The remaining civilians are all rescued without injury. The survivors include a prominant Pacifico businessman and his family — Lee Zhu Pinyin

A Ballgame and the Zoo - what a great weekend!

Following a brief introductory discussion, the heroes were introduced to several other individuals.

First came the Pit Boss – the team’s liaison to the High Rollers. The Pit Boss was his customary stern self – and he made it clear that he is not happy babysitting a bunch of kids, and that if the heroes ever call him, it had better be for a good reason.

Next entered Sgt. Tim Lincoln of the Pacifico Police Department (PPD). Sgt. Lincoln introduced himself as the team’s liaison to the PPD – a job he seemed much happier with than the Pit Boss did! He made certain that all of the heroes had his direct contact information.

Finally, the team was introduced to Doctor Eric Daniels, the team’s new liaison with the think-tank GEMINI. As an introductory gift, Dr. Daniels provides the heroes with wrist-communicators that can also serve as external cell phones.

Following the departure of the various liaisons, Agent Michaels invited the heroes down to the waiting limousines to be taken to their new home. The heroes were taken to a lightly-industrialized section of Pacifico knows as Queensgate. There they were driven to a walled compound where Agent Michaels opened the gates using a retinal imager. The building inside the walls turned out to be a 2-story warehouse facility with ample open space on the main floor and ample living space on the second floor.

They were given the grand tour and were thoroughly underwhelmed by the quality of the accommodations that their new headquarters provides. Agent Michaels assured them that all new hero groups are provided similar facilities until they have proved themselves. The one silver lining was the shielded, stand-alone power generator in the facility’s basement.
Before leaving, Agent Michaels scanned the heroes’ retinal images into the base security system, and informed them that he would be sending the limos to pick them up in the morning for their introductory press conference. As a parting gesture, he encouraged the heroes to enjoy themselves for the evening and gave them Box Seats to the Pacifico Surge game that night.
The majority of the heroes (White Fist, Flower Power, the Messenger, Iron Wind, the Valkyrie, and Photon Wave) decided to take advantage of the offer and attended the game in civilian garb.

After the completion of the sixth inning, gunfire erupted from across the stadium. White Fist immediately flew across the arena using his telekinetic powers and spied a dozen gunmen wearing California Republic fatigues attacking an odd-looking goateed individual. 6 gunmen were in the lower section firing at close range while 2 groups of three gunmen were firing from the upper level. The target is obviously a metahuman as he was witnessed exhibiting both the Invulnerabilty power as well as some kind of mental blast.

While White Fist waded into the 6 attacking gunmen, Iron Wind grabbed the badly wounded target and ran him back across the stadium to the box where the Valkyrie could administer aid. Flower Power added the target to the telepathic switchboard that she had set up. As she did this, the target responded with amusement that she was ‘another telepath’.

The gunmen on the upper levels began moving in opposite directions around the stadium trying to get to the box. The Messenger and Photon Wave both moved to intercept one of the groups while Flower Power joined the fight across the stadium by creating a huge snake to participate in the battle.

Valkyrie was kept busy by the target – as soon as she finished administering first aid, he jumped up and ran out of the box. She followed him, expecting to provide protection, but as soon as he was out among the panicking throng, suddenly there appeared to be 5 of him! The five versions appeared to come together into one image and then burst apart – heading in 5 different directions. Valkyrie attempted to follow the one that she thought was the ‘real’ target, but she turned out to be wrong as the illusion faded away.

The battle was short and sweet – and in less than two minutes, seven of the gunmen lie unconscious at the feet of the various heroes. Five, unfortunately escaped in the chaos. Within minutes PPD and MEDUSA agents arrived to take charge of the captured gunmen. A quick telepathic probe by Flower Power revealed that the gunmen were an ‘Acquisition Team’ sent to kidnap the target for ‘reprogramming’. The target’s name was Daniel Higgins – a Psychologist.

Needless to say, the events at the game required an impromptu news conference that replaced the one scheduled for the following morning.

The next morning, the phone at their new headquarters was ringing off the hook with both minor ‘emergencies’ (“My cat is up a tree!”) as well as well-wishers from the community. The most prominent individual to leave a welcoming message was Dr. Lloyd Merryweather of the Paragon Society.

Later in the morning, an extremely expensive Jaguar pulled up to the gate. The visitor announced himself as Alvin Reichel of the law firm Reichel and Holmsen. The Messenger buzzed the attorney into the compound and met him in the lobby. The team is familiar with the firm as one that makes its substantial living defending supervillains. Reichel introduced himself and stated that he was requested by one of his clients to deliver a message to the team this morning. He handed over an embossed card and left.

The heroes read the message on the card: Oozy Rat in a Sanitary Zoo

The heroes spent a brief discussion debating about the purpose for the card. Certainly, given the delivery, the card was sent by a villain for some purpose – probably a challenge of some kind. Iron Wind was quick to note that the phrase is a palindrome, but that does not further their queries. The Messenger calls Agent Michaels to see if MEDUSA has any insight.

Agent Michaels informed the heroes that there is a known villain (whether a metahuman or not is unknown) called Palindrome who seems to find it amusing to challenge superheroes with seemingly random attacks. He warned the heroes that the receipt of a palindrome usually is followed quickly by an attack of some kind which follows the palindrome. It is vital for the public safety that the heroes correctly identify the target. He also warned the heroes that Palindrome wants the heroes to face the challenge – so be sure not to over-think the clue.

After another brief discussion, the team decided to first check out the Pacifico Zoo and then check out the San Francisco Zoo. They quickly fly over to the Pacifico Zoo where they are greeted by excited, screaming zoo patrons. Unfortunately, the patrons are not screaming in excitement because the city’s new superhero group arrived for photos and autographs… but because of the rampaging 75 foot tall rat (amply covered in ooze) attacking the complex!

It's the PITs

On the return flight to New York, the storm that had begun a few hours ago has grown into a swirling maelstrom blanketing the city. Grey Mist attempts to use his weather control abilities to stop the storm, but he is only able to affect the storm in a small, localized area (which the jetcopter pilot appreciates tremendously!).

Wanting to investigate the storm, the heroes look to drop the Greater Good into someone else’s custody temporarily. Not wanting to lose the Center City group to an expedited bail process, the Cleaner contacts MEDUSA for assistance. Agent Artis Shannon begrudgingly give the heroes directions to a dilapidated [[MEDUSA HQ – East Coast | warehouse]]. Agent Shannon takes the prisoners out of the copter and tells the Vanguard that he can hold them for 48 hours before turning them over to local law enforcement.

While the Greater Good is being carried off to their cells, the Vanguard rushes out to investigate the storm. While they fail to find a supervillain above the clouds directing the storm, they do spy a section of the shopping district where a fire is raging out of control.

Flying over the scene of the fire, they discover two things: First, in a 2 block bubble the storm is not falling and Second, a giant serpent-like creature is undulating through the street. Landing the copter, the heroes encounter Firefighting crews outside the bubble area who express gratitude that the heroes have arrived since a ‘bunch of loonies’ are in there destroying everything!

As the Grey Mist, Astrid, Xue Zen, the Cleaner, MagLev, Enerjon, and Tank enter the bubble and move to engage the serpent, two masked figures emerge from a burning jewelry store to attack. The first is a man in a skin-tight black jumpsuit with a carved jack-o-lantern mask. His form is wreathed in flame. The second is dressed in a worn pair of overalls and a red checked flannel shirt with a porcelain clown mask. He is carrying an oversized chainsaw.

The heroes engage the villains. Grey Mist realizes that his telekinetic ability is suddenly gone! Tank blasts the serpent with a sonic blast and discovers that the beast is made up entirely of animated garbage. Enerjon knocks out Pumpkin-Head with a single well placed power blast before turning to join Grey Mist, Xue Zen, and Astrid in attacking Manslaughter (the chainsaw-weilder). Maglev and the Cleaner join Tank in attacking the serpent.

Suddenly, a figure leaps from the mouth of the serpent and splatters on Astrid’s force field – it is the former ErrantScuz! Remembering that Scuz is unaffected by energy attacks, Grey Mist disengages with the chainsaw wielding villain and directs his mace at Scuz. A single blow from the mace incapacitates Scuz into shapeless ooze.

Meanwhile, a filthy, disgusting, rancid man walks from a nearby alley. He is wearing what arguably may have once been a City Garbage Man uniform. Recognizing this foul being as the antithesis of everything he stands for, the Cleaner immediately rushes to battle his foe while the rest of the team knocks out chainsaw. Elated at finally facing his opposite, the Cleaner taps some unknown, primal energy and unleashes the most powerful blow that he has in his short superhero career. The single shot from his mop handle drives the Garbageman back through the air and into unconsciousness. With the defeat of the Garbageman, the giant serpent collapses back into its individual components.

At the same time, Grey Mist feels a very familiar punch in the back of his head – it is his old nemesis Parasite from the South Carolina group Recon – and Parasite has attacked him in the exact same way that he did previously – while standing on the back of Grey Mist’s neck! Unfortunately for the villain, Grey Mist is not knocked out by the blow as he was in South Carolina. Enerjon sees the tiny villain and peppers him with energy blasts which seem to have little effect. More effective, however, is Astrid’s paralysis ray and the tiny villain disappears. Tank’s pet monkey leaps over to the teen hero and as if grooming, plucks the tiny villain from his uniform.

Realizing that the bubble is still up, Enerjon and Astrid begin searching for another villain, but within seconds, the bubble vanishes and the rain starts to fall. Firefighters and Police rush in to fight the fires and deal with civilians caught in the burning buildings. The heroes are certain that another as yet unknown villain has made his escape. Grey Mist realizes with relief that his telekinesis has returned.

Grey Mist encases Parasite in a ball of metal and in one of the nearby buildings MagLev locates a large jar which they use to transport Scuz before he washes down the gutter. The Vanguard takes the captured villains to the MEDUSA warehouse where Agent Shannon (again begrudgingly) agrees to hold them for 48 hours.

The heroes verify that the members of the Greater Good have been separated from their equipment and revive Fahrenheit 451 for questioning. The interrogation is brief and conclusive: either the suspected mind control is far stronger than thought to be, or 451 is not being mind controlled and is exactly what he appears to be – a normal citizen working with a citizen’s patrol group!

A junior agent rushes into the main room and turns on the local news… The Governor of Maryland has issued warrants for the arrest of the super-terrorists that have kidnapped the valiant members of the Center City hero group, the Greater Good as well as caused significant damage to the Center City Mall. Further, the authorities have contracted with PITs to capture the wanted criminals. Specifically mentioned in the warrant are Xue Zen, MagLev, Astrid, Grey Mist, and the Cleaner. Enerjon is aghast that the majority of his team is now considered to be wanted supervillains. He immediately requests a transfer to ‘a hero group that acts like heroes!’. His request is flatly denied.

Agent Shannon says that he won’t turn them in, and he will still hold the Greater Good for the rest of the 48 hours on their word that they are indeed villains, but they need to leave the MEDUSA warehouse immediately. As they prepare to leave, Astrid asks Agent Shannon if MEDUSA can exert influence to transfer Stanislaw to a New York City hospital.

Enerjon attempts to call Lee Sung, but is told that their benefactor is ‘unavailable’. Taking that as an ominous sign, the heroes decide to go into hiding while they decide what to do next. After a quick debate, Enerjon calls White Star to join them. She utilizes her teleportation powers to return the unconscious Greater Good members to the Center City Mall.
Enerjon and White Star return to the Aerie while the remainder of the team gets a series of hotel rooms under their secret identities.

Both groups of heroes have nocturnal visitors. At the Aerie, a PITs squad of a dozen mercenaries arrives at the penthouse via helicopter. Gonzo watches the incursion invisibly from the next rooftop while White Star, Enerjon, and Tree Brother allow the agents to search the Aerie for their absent companions. Finding none of the wanted heroes, the PITs team leaves as quickly as they came.

At the Hilton, the Heroes are awakened by a knock on the door. Astrid scoots astrally down the hall to get a look at the visitors and sees Sun Ye with some members of the usual ‘breakfast crew’. They are carrying a variety of boxes (including one that says ‘PS3’. Grey Mist lets them inside and immediately starts setting up the video game system. Lee Tan apologizes for the continued inaccessibility of ‘Uncle’ and hopes that they are not intruding. Uncle keeps well aware of their location and is aware of their predicament. Sun Ye helps the heroes recover from the recent battles, and the visitors leave.

Following their encounter with Dr. Kohlneziewski, the battered heroes allowed him to leave the SWORD base without conflict. The Vanguard then made their way back to the Aerie for some recuperation. As they re-enter New York City, it starts to rain.
The heroes decide that if they are going to be able to move forward in their crusade against SWORD, then they are going to have to find some way of reentering Center City. In their secret identities, they acquire a set of hotel rooms on the outskirts of the city to use as a base.

To find out the lay of the land, MagLev and the Cleaner attend one of the Bishop’s rallies in their secret identities. The rally is led by the Reverend Spencer Carruthers, a Chicago-area televangelist that has relocated his operations to Center City to support the Bishop in his stance against the Government Hero groups. Shortly into the Reverend’s speech, the heroes find themselves almost mesmerized by the eloquence of the Reverend. Despite all of their attempts to remain objective, the two find themselves agreeing enthusiastically with everything that the Reverend is saying.

Monitoring the event from outside, Xue Zen deduces that the Reverend has employed some form of mind control ability on the crowd inside. To break the spell, Xue Zen creates the illusion of a fire breaking out in the roof of the facility causing the occupants to exit the building. Once outside, MagLev and the Cleaner are freed of the external influence.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Vanguard debates the likelihood that the Bishop has some means of exerting Mind Control influence over the city. Astrid doesn’t believe that anyone has that kind of power. Grey Mist and Gonzo both agree that he must have some way of magnifying his ability over a large area. Tree Brother suggests that perhaps there is something in the water supply – but the effect is not universal within the affected area and the affected area is not consistent with water supplies.

As the heroes have already vetted the Bishops residence for signs of unusual energy consumption, the Grey Mist decides to perform a little reconnaissance on the radio transmitter that broadcasts the Bishop’s weekly show. He uses his weather control ability to lay down a fog cover early in the morning as he flies to the transmitter. He uses his magnetic powers to examine the area for any anomalies, but is interrupted by a female voice in his head…. ‘Grey Mist… you are not welcome here’. He looks down and sees a particularly obese woman looking up at him from the ground. Deciding not to initiate a conflict at this time, Grey Mist returns to the heroes’ hotel base.

A closer examination of the flash drive that they got from Epsilon reveals that the device is full of old Scooby Doo cartoons. Hidden amid them is a text file that reveals that the new Center City SWORD base is hidden somewhere in the Center City Mall. Astrid and Xue Zen use their Astral Projection powers to search the Mall after close. Once they try to penetrate below the basement, they experience a peculiar wrenching feeling and suddenly find themselves in Tokyo. After a quick flight back, the heroes decide that a more direct search is necessary. Xue Zen uses his illusion powers to phone in a gas leak causing the guards to leave the premises.

A quick search fails to reveal an obvious entry to a hidden base, so the heroes begin punching holes in the floor. They are interrupted by the sound of an explosion from the parking lot. Outside, the Bishop’s citizen patrol (the Greater Good) has assembled – and Fahrenheit 451 has turned his flame thrower on Xue Zen’s truck, causing it to erupt in a ball of fire. Along with 451 are ProLife, the Cavalier, Corporal Punishment, Guardian Angel, and the Reverand Spencer Carruthers who introduces himself as the Evangelist. A brief fight ensues and the Greater Good finds itself to be no match for the assembled heroes. Grey Mist suggests that maybe they really are normal citizen heroes under the mind control of the Bishop. Thinking that distance from the Bishop might break the control, they call George Wynn and arrange for the jetcopter to come pick them up. The Vanguard loads the Greater Good into the copter and return to New York.

He was a part of Project Spinal Tap – He knew that ethically the project was wrong, but was forced to participate under duress. He was threatened with mortal harm to his wife.

He is the one that sabotaged the project originally by changing the protocols in one clone (Astrid).

His wife has recently died and he is now free to act to disrupt the evil plan – he wants to help the heroes in any way possible.

He has cured Astrid’s ‘cold’. The cold symptoms were the result of signals being sent to the clones by SWORD using a revolutionary USAF missile guidance chip. (Yes… the one stolen from the Center City Mall in the Vanguard’s first adventure) Since the signals were in direct conflict with specific protocols he had put in place, the conflict manifested itself as a respiratory infection. The issue was made even worse by a second set of ‘signals’ emanating from the wrist communicator. He recommends that Astrid not use the newer communicator anymore.

He knows that the main SWORD base on the east coast is located somewhere in Center City, but he does not know where it is. That base is where the signals are being sent from.

The SWORD base in NYC will have the location of the Center City base in its computer system. He gives the heroes a flash drive to slice through the computer security.

Astrid and MagLev return to the Aerie with Epsilon to plan the attack on the SWORD base. In order to keep the geneticist safe, Astrid gives him the keys to her California beach residence. He gratefully accepts and heads for safety.

The Vanguard make an assault on the Airport entrance to the SWORD base under the cover of a rainstorm provided by Grey Mist. As they arrive at the airport, however, alarms are going off, the guards from the tunnel are running to the special hanger, and the unmistakable sound of a rocket engine are coming from the tunnel.

Grey Mist uses his magnetic powers to adjust the width of the rails to slow the train down without derailing it. A battle ensues against the Wild Boar, Headhunter, the Black Panther, the Beholder, Monsoon and Wildcat while a group of scientists scrambles from the train to the hanger.
The heroes trounce the villains and lock the scientists inside a disabled plane.

They explore the SWORD base on the lookout for whatever emergency caused the villains to evacuate the base. The base is littered with the dead bodies of technicians and scientists, all showing signs of being killed by an expert swordsman. They are able to find the computer room and access the computer records using Epsilon’s flash drive automatically downloading information to the drive.
A small cough behind them causes them to whirl around – there standing behind them is Doctor Ivan Kohlneziewski armed with a wicked looking longsword.

Ivan reveals that he faked his own death in order to revenge himself on all those who contributed to his framing and especially on Epsilon… who is in reality Doctor Evan Pastor an extremely high ranking member of the SWORD hierarchy. Ivan is the Synthetic Memory Murderer

Following the battle with the ghosts, the heroes split up. Astrid and Grey Mist along with MagLev stayed at the museum. Gonzo and the Bat returned to the Aerie to make use of the healing chambers. Xue Zen, refusing to return to the Aerie, checked in to a local hospital for treatment.

At the Aerie, the pair was greeted in the morning by Lee Sung’s minions along with the healer Sun Ye. After accepting her services, Gonzo and the Bat returned to the museum.

At the museum, the Curator and Exhibitor expressed their displeasure over both the theft of the mummy and the destruction of the ceiling in the exhibition hall. In a fit of pique, the pair announces that they will be exploring their alternatives for the protection of the exhibit.
Astrid’s respiratory infection continues to worsen. She lets the rest of the team know that she is heading to the hospital. However, MagLev discovers her on a couch with a far-off look in her eyes. It is determined that Astrid was physically incapable of going to the hospital unattended. If she tries, she ‘shuts down’ and generates memories of travelling to the hospital. Yet another unattractive feature of her clone lineage. MagLev accompanies Astrid to the hospital where they can find no reason for her affliction.

While Xue Zen continues to recover in the hospital, the rest of the Vanguard (alon with Miss Ming) remain on duty at the museum for the next three nights. In the middle of the third night, the villain Guf walks into the museum bringing a box of doughnuts and a couple of thermoses of coffee. He banters lightly with the heroes. At Astrid’s request, he uses his transmutation abilities to repair the ceiling.

Grey Mist asks Guf, ‘hypothetically…. If it wasn’t you that stole the mummy…. Who else might have been interested in acquiring it?’ Guf considers the question and says that a villain named Destikothesis and his band of Revenants might have been interested in the mummy…. But he believes that the Vanguard encountered them in New York… and if they wanted the mummy, they would have taken it after defeating the heroes.

The following morning, the heroes and Guf leave the museum. The Curator meets the heroes and informs them that their services will no longer be needed because the PITs team will be handling security at the exhibit – although he was pleasantly surprised to discover that the physical damage done during the battle had been repaired.

After the three intervening days, Astrid’s illness becomes significantly worse –to the point of affecting her effectiveness. She leaves the rest of the team and boards a plane for her childhood home in California.

Discovering her absence, the rest of the heroes (except Xue Zen) return to the Aerie in order to locate her using Teacher. They are able to locate her via the gps in her communicator. MagLev flies to California to find her.

Meanwhile, Xue Zen returns in disguise to Center City. He visits Stanislaw in the hospital and sets up a base of operations in New Jersey. The first phase of his plan involves contacting various ‘unsavory’ acquaintances he knows from his street performer days in San Francisco.

Grey Mist makes plans to attack the SWORD base identified by Silent Rage – and plans to attack it alone if necessary since his teammates are spread out across the country. Gonzo talks him into waiting for a few days while he performs some recon on the known entrances to the hidden base.

The heroes recall the rail exit from the base that exits at a remote privately run airport. Gonzo invisibly watches the airport for a couple of days. He observes several points of interest:

There is a regular guard at the hillside entrance to the railway.

There are two hangers – one that is run by the airport owners for the regular customers, and one that is privately held and locked tight.

In the meanwhile, Astrid discovers that her father’s house (no sign of Jason Kurtz) and lab are abandoned. In a fog, she checks into Cedars Sinai. While in the emergency room, a familiar looking doctor arrives at her bedside. He asks how she is doing and prepares to inject her with a hypodermic. She resists the shot, determined to first figure out why he is so familiar looking. He admits that he knows her well and that she knows him as Epsilon. She asks how long she has known him and his reply is, ‘from the beginning’. He then says something that she doesn’t understand – mostly because she immediately blacks out.

MagLev arrives at the hospital and is shown to Astrid’s bed. She finds the bed empty except for Astrid’s communicator.

As they stand over the bodies of their fallen adversaries, the members of the Vanguard stare dejectedly into the sky at the receding form of Astrid. Without warning, a rainbow-hued anomaly appears before them, and as it clears the heroes see the unconscious form of Astrid along with the smiling Miss Ming! Miss Ming points to the rapidly disappearing speck and states that the Astrid that the unknown assailant has taken is actually one of her illusions. She also recommends that the group vacate the park before the villain realizes his mistake.

Agreeing with the illusion, the heroes gather up the fallen victims and return to the Aerie. Also in the Aerie are Agent Artis Shannon (the groups MEDUSA liaison) and his newest recruit; the Cleaner. Agent Shannon is predictably terse with his introductions and quick with his exit.

The members of the Vanguard gather on the roof with their bound captives. The Cleaner takes an active part in the interrogation, breaking one of Spyder’s toes and threatening to break more before Gonzoconvinces him that as heroes, they cannot stoop to those methods. Showing no reaction to the broken toe, Spyder calmly looks at his compatriots and instructs them not to say anything.

Realizing that the Spyder is the leader of this group, the Vanguard decides to separate him from the other three. The Cleaner takes Spyder downstairs into the main living area. While Cleaner is keeping a close eye on the villain, Spyder escapes from his bonds and makes for the window. Utilizing his super speed, the Cleaner blocks the window, but ultimately is no match for the powerful villain. Before losing consciousness, the Cleaner is able to call for help.
Up on the roof, the heroes hear the cry for help followed quickly by the crash of breaking glass. The Unknown Soldier and Grey Mist make their way downstairs and find the unconscious body of the Cleaner and a shattered window. The pair search the headquarters believing the Spyder to be hidden somewhere inside. Their search is unsuccessful and Teacher confirms that there are no other living beings in the complex.

Reacting to the sound of breaking glass, Gonzo flies off of the roof looking for the fleeing supervillain – but he is unable to locate the Spyder either.

The heroes return to the roof where they continue the interrogation. In a fit of pique and frustration, the Unknown Soldier knocks the Desert Nomad back into unconsciousness. Longarm taunts the heroes by demanding that his toes be broken too! He demonstrates the futility of breaking his limbs by twisting his own toes 720 degrees using his stretching abilities. When threatened by Enerjon, he blissfully turns on his force field power laughing maniacally. Enerjon takes his time pummeling the force field with power blasts until Longarm removes it.

Cowed by the show of force against immobilized captives, Silent Rage indicates that he is willing to answer questions – but will need his arms untied as he is a mute and can only communicate effectively through the written word. The heroes separate him from his companions and, under careful guard, they untie him and provide him with writing materials. They learn the following information from the villain:

Having learned all that they can from their captives, the Vanguard calls the NYPD to collect the villains and cart them off to jail – knowing full well that the villains will likely be out on bail quickly. Enerjon complains bitterly about the bail system.

Astrid’s flu-like symptoms continue to get worse. And the Unknown Soldiers nightmares also get worse – in this one he is in epic battle with a cloaked villain that radiated EVIL. After the exhausting ebb and flow of the fight he is hurt mortally, but is victorious. The villain’s cowl falls away and is revealed to be the Grey Mist!

In the morning, the battered and bruised heroes are met by the now familiar site of Lee Sung’s minions arriving with their catered breakfast. The head minion indicates that the ‘Uncle’ is aware that the heroes may be in need of some specialized services. He introduces the heroes to Sun Ye , a young Chinese woman. Sun Ye goes to each of the heroes (except Xue Zen who refuses) and lays hands on them. Sun Ye has the ability to bestow her own power of regeneration on those she touches and all of the heroes are quickly healed. Xue Zen leaves the Aerie and goes to the hospital for treatment.

Following his first aid, Xue Zen travels to Washington D.C. and visits Devea in her Georgetown townhouse. Devea is especially cold and unwelcoming. Since the Vanguard left Center City, Stanislaw felt morally obligated to come out of retirement and stand up against evildoers in the Vanguard’s absence. Unfortunately, the civilians of Center City in an anti-costumed hero rage ambushed the elderly hero and hospitalized him. It is unknown at this time whether or not he will emerge from his coma. Devea sternly lectures Xue Zen and demands that the Vanguard return to right the wrongs.

Xue Zen promises that the Vanguard will return to Center City following their obligations in Boston. He also asks if Devea can help determine whether his Uncle has exerted any undue influence on Miss Ming or himself. Devea studies him for a moment and replies that there are traces of his Uncle’s influence about him – but that Lee Sung is probably distracted from his current goals by the presence of the other sorcerer that the Vanguard has brought into this world…. Baron Zelmut.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team prepares for their scheduled trip to the Boston Museum to guard the exhibition. Grey Mist receives a phone call from Guf. Guf renews his invitation for dinner for that evening. He suggests that the heroes arrive around 7pm. The heroes, knowing that the museum closes at 5pm, respectfully decline. The Vanguard sends the Unknown Soldier, the Cleaner, Grey Mist, Astrid, Enerjon, Gonzo, and the Bat to Boston.

Once they arrive at the museum, the heroes head immediately to the museum. They had previously recommended that the museum not display the Scroll of Destiny and instead replace it with a forgery. They are pleased to find that the exhibitors followed their suggestion – Grey Mist is even more pleased to have his original replacement scroll returned to him (apparently the museum finds crayon on construction paper to be an inadequate replacement).

Xue Zen leaves Washington and catches a flight to Boston. Astrid meets him at the airport. Also meeting him at the airport is a limo driver bearing a ‘Xue Zen’ placard. Xue Zen and Astrid converse with him and he hands them an envelope – containing an engraved invitation from Guf for dinner this evening. The heroes decline the ride and the invitation and join the rest of the group at the museum.

Following the closing of the museum at 5pm, Enerjon and Xue Zen patrol the entrance level while the rest of the heroes take up posts in the sub-level where the exhibit is being displayed. At 6pm, Enerjon sees a long black limousine pulls up to the front door. To his surprise, his Vanguard communicator goes off. To his greater surprise, it is Guf calling! Guf renews his invitation one final time (in their best interest!) and states that he has sent a car for the heroes. Enerjon abruptly declines and the limo glides away.

Later that evening, about 9pm, Xue Zen feels an icy sensation and sounds the alarm. At the same moment, 4 ghostly sprits came through the floors of the sub-level and a glowing purple disc approximately 12 feet in diameter appears on the ceiling. The ghosts include:

The four spirits immediately converge on the Golden Sarcophagus of King Rhamadad and begin to lift the slab lid. Gonzo grabs the lid telekinetically in an attempt to keep it shut, but the combined might of the ghosts is too much for him to overcome. The lid is thrown to the side and a ghost in Egyptian headdress flies from the sarcophagus. The Egyptian ghost has the mortal remains of King Rhamadad in its arms and it flies through the portal in the ceiling.

Astrid has been in her astral form and she follows the ghost through the center of the portal, and Gonzo and the Bat follow immediately. Astrid, to her surprise, flies astrally right through the floor to the main floor – apparently unable to fly through the gate. To her greater surprise, Gonzo and the Bat (in their all too physical forms) come crashing through the floor leaving a gaping hole. Gonzo’s unconscious body falls to the floor.

The remaining heroes team up to pound the daylights out of Heloise and after a couple of big hits, she cackles maniacally and flies up through the purple disc.
Mist touches the Unknown Soldier and he feels as if his very soul is wrenched from his body. The ghost then begins attacking with his Power Blast ability. She successfully uses his power to fell the Bat.

The heroes luck begins to turn and they are able to successfully knock Mist and Banchiee through the walls to the point where they fail to return. Xue Zen battles with Colonel Elgin striking him repeatedly with his sais. Grey Mist correctly guesses that this particular ghost is immune to normal physical attacks and between his telekinetic/magnetic blasts and Enerjon’s and Unknown Soldier’s power blasts they are able to repel him.

Silence falls over the museum. Grey Mist ponders, ‘Is it really stealing? Looks like the Pharoah walked out with his own property….’

An examination of the plane’s cargo reveals sufficient medical supplies to stock a small hospital – raising the question of what are Dr. DNA’s plans in the coming weeks.

The next few days pass uneventfully. Much to the surprise of the heroes, the fuzzies remain in jail – everyone expected them to be quickly bailed out by the Wolfpack.

Enerjon meets with the Director of Exhibits for the museum and conferences with the Director of the Boston Museum. He convinces them to display a fake Scroll of Destiny and keep the real one in a safe place. The feeling of the heroes is that the Scroll is the primary target of the villains and should not be put at risk.

In the meantime, concerned with the evolving independence of Miss Ming, Xue Zen decides that it is best to leave the Aerie and escape his Uncle’s sphere of influence. He moves into a small apartment in Brooklyn.

The following day, when Lee Sung’s minions arrive with the breakfast buffet, they comment on the absence of the nephew. Enerjon explains that Xue Zen has moved and provides the minions with his forwarding address. Astrid (still fighting her cold) takes advantage of the opportunity to complain that the healing properties of the Aerie do not seem to be as effective as they had been previously.

Xue Zen’s concerns about the illusory Miss Ming grow when she begins to show signs of corporal behavior. While on patrol, Xue Zen notices Miss Ming interact with objects (such as turning the pages of a magazine). He questions her about what his Uncle has been teaching her, but her answers are coy and non-committal.

The Vanguard is also preparing for the trip to Boston to protect the museum exhibit from potential thieves. The Grey Mist places a phone call to Guf to let him know that the Vanguard will soon be in the area. Guf invites the heroes over for dinner while they are in town and assures them that he has no interest in stepping foot in the museum while they are in the area.

The Unknown Soldier continues his daily patrols. He is suddenly ambushed by four supervillains – Longarm, Silent Rage, and his arch-enemy Desert Nomad (all previously encountered in the hidden SWORD base here in Manhattan) along with a powerful Spider-Themed villain that was one of the villains encountered in the fight at the bread factory after Astrid was kidnapped by the Reavers. The Soldier is able to send out a cry for help over the communicators as he is attacked. The villains demand to know where ‘Number 8’ has been hidden. The Soldier is unable to answer the question… because he doesn’t know. Before he can reveal that only the Grey Mist knows where the android has been taken, he is knocked unconscious by a power blast from another assailant somewhere above him.

The Grey Mist, Enerjon, Xue Zen, and Astrid respond to the distress call in time to see the Soldier crumple to the ground. They immediately join in battle. In the opening moments of the fight, the Grey Mist swoops in and crushes Longarm with a single blow from his mace. Xue Zen begins trading blows with Silent Rage and Enerjon challenges the fourth villain (revealed as ‘Spyder’). Astrid hangs back and peppers the combatants with paralysis beams while avoiding the attacks of the Desert Nomad.

Enerjon and Spyder trade titanic blows back and forth – neither able to avoid the attacks of the other. The outcome of that duel was in doubt until Grey Mist joined the fray – Spyder dropped between the combined attacks of the heroes.

Astrid successfully paralyzes the Desert Nomad, but only for a second as the strong-willed villain breaks free. The delay is enough however for a blow from Grey Mist’s mace to put him down.

Xue Zen and Silent Rage battle exclusively until Silent Rage sees the Nomad go down. Once he is alone, Silent Rage immediately changes his target to Astrid. Astrid manges to paralyze the villain and Xue Zen is able to finish him off with an illusory disintegration blast.

Having seen the Power Blast that knocked the Unknown Soldier to the ground, Enerjon begins scanning the sky for an invisible opponent. After a few minutes, he is successful in seeing a spatial anomaly in a vaguely humanoid shape. He blasts the invisible foe with his power blast confirming the presence of yet another enemy. The unknown, invisible, flying enemy ignores the attacks of the heroes and swoops down to attack Astrid. Astrid takes several blows from a bladed weapon and is quickly rendered unconscious. Her prone form is picked up off of the ground and appears to be hoisted atop an invisible shoulder and the villain begins to take to the air.

The Grey Mist takes magnetic control of his steel cable and wraps Astrid up, but the villain’s prodigious strength is too great for the hero’s magnetic might and he is pulled into the air along with Astrid. Grey Mist adds his telekinetic might to the tug of war and begins to pull back toward the ground – but a single blow from the villain’s weapon severs the cable and the two go shooting off in opposite directions from the forces released. Astrid disappears with the villain.

A couple of days pass and the heroes of the Vanguard recover from their adventure at the museum. A number of significant events occurred during this time:

Xue Zen continued partying through the night at various clubs with Miss Ming and the illusory Frank Sinatra. While in a crowded nightclub, Xue Zen catches a glimpse of Baron Zelmut across the room. When he tred to get a better look, the Baron had disappeared.

The Unknown Soldier continues to have disturbing nightmares. The most recent being a vision of himself in a labcoat walking down a long hallway with numerous doors. Through windows in each door, he sees himself (or clones of himself) in a bubble of some sort with various tubes running between the body and machinery.

Miss Ming continues to show increased independence from the control of Xue Zen. She absented herself on several occassions to keep appointments wit his Uncle Lee Sung.

Astrid catches a bad respiratory infection… which is odd because she has never gotten sick in her life before

The Scroll of Destiny was returned to the museum. The curator has closed the exhibit due to the damage. The exhibitor is packing up the undamaged pieces and is preparing to transport the exhibit to its next destination… Boston.

The heroes’ brief respite from action is shattered by an emergency alert from Teacher. A group of villains has attacked a cargo plane at La Guardia airport. Local authorities responded to the airport and the villains took refuge in a small hanger. Xue Zen, the Unknown Soldier, MagLev, Grey Mist, and Gonzo responded to the call for help.

Shortly after, the Vanguard arrives at the hanger. The Unknown soldier uses his x-ray vision to look inside the hanger, but all he saw wan an impenetrable darkness. Xue Zen and the Unknown Soldier wait at the front door and Gonzo waits by the back door while Grey Mist and MagLev fly above the building. Grey Mist rips a hole in the metal ceiling and immediately a burst of energy struck from inside the pitch interior of the hanger knocking MagLev from the sky.

The heroes rush into the building and are unable to see in the darkness. Suddenly the darkenss recedes and coalesces in a vaguely human-like shape revealing the foes. In addition to the ‘dark-man’ (called Twilight Hunter by his compatriots, the heroes see five other masked villains:

A shapely woman in a blue-silver costume running with incredible speed referred to as Zephyr

A woman in a black and white costume hiding behind a force field called Protocol

The battle rages back and forth, but the reasonably inexperienced villains had very little chance against the more seasoned Vanguard. Decay is knocked unconscious almost immediately and the team focuses their attacks on the giant Jupiter and the speedy Zephyr. After a judicious amount of damage, Grey Mist levies a tremendous blow with his mace and Jupiter is felled – permanently.

Once attention is turned to Zephyr, she changes tactics and uses her speed to zoom in and out of the battle striking with Vibratory powers and vacating the battle before the heroes could counter attack. Grey Mist delays his action long enough to get a strike in as she returns to the fight nearly knocking her unconscious. Staggering, she ran away from the fight and escaped through the police cordon.

Decay rises from the floor — apparently having regenerated some of the damage he had sustained — and runs for the back door. He is immediately knocked back down with a single blow from the Unknown Soldier.

Meanwhile, an aerial fight ensues between Grey Mist and Pulsar while Xue Zen and Gonzo concentrate on the Twilight Hunter and The Unknown Soldier concentrates fire on Protocol.

The combined fire of the heroes is enough to overwhelm the Twilight Hunter. Protocol reveals the power to project the emotion of apathy… and while the heroes just don’t care to fight, she slips out of the hanger and escapes.

Pulsar is knocked unconscious by Grey Mist’s mace and as he lands on the ground his mask slips off. The heroes recognize him as Tony Penderghast… one of the original fuzzies. The other fallen villains are revealed to be the fuzzies Kirt Campbell, Sid Herbert, and the unfortunately deceased Kevin Scudder.

They admit that Zephyr is really Mary Platt and Protocol is Mackenzie Bedford. The plane that was attacked by the fuzzies was carrying medical supplies.

First the apology… I am about 4 weeks behind in updating the adventure log… and as a result, I have lost my campaign notes. What follows is a summary of major encounters thta occurred over the last 2 sessions. Further details will be added as time allows.

Upon their return from their battle with Totem, the Vanguard were ambushed on their roof by a group of familiar supervillains. The Beholder led the opposing force which consisted of the Desert Nomad and Wildcat. Also with them were two familiar-looking villains… one with windstorm powers and the other a walking steel statue. The heroes were too much for the collection of villains to handle and the majority of the villains were knocked unconscious quickly. The Nomad and Beholder were able to teleport away with the steel-man and the Wildcat. The Desert Nomad was quickly bound by Enerjon and hauled off to prison without being questioned. Uponafter his arrival at the jail, one of the Wolfpack was on hand to arrange his bail. The Nomad’s current whereabouts are unknown.

The Grey Mist meets with Guf and determines that the Boston ‘villain’ is not likely to attack the exhibit while it is in NYC.

The Grey Mist decides that the Scroll is the most likely target and creates a duplicate out of construction paper. They hide the real scroll in another room with Astrid and MagLev guarding it while the rest of the team guards the primary exhibit room.

On the third night of their vigil, a group of villains attacks the exhibit.

Destikothesis: claimed to be the reincarnation of an Egyptian Pharoah. Possesses magical powers

Bast: claimed to be the avatar of the Egyptian Cat goddess. Possesses catlike reflexes and claws as well as the ability to control a small army of cats and invisibility

A Caveman with tremendous strength and gravity control powers. Possesses the power to turn invisible

An amphibious warrior

The battle was mighty and members of both sides were felled in the conflict. However, the heroes got the upper hand and the remaining villains teleported away with their fallen comrades. Enerjon got his fallen teammates to the Aerie for healing. The Enerjon and Gonzo returned to the museum and interrupted the returning villains from their search for the Scroll. Outpowered, Enerjon was knocked unconscious and Gonzo grabbed the scroll from its hiding place and flew back to the Aerie with it to return it to the curator the following day.

The Vanguard’s first week in New York passed in a haze of fetes, dinners, and celebrations. It seemed that every person of influence in New York wanted to become acquainted with the heroes. The highlight of the week was the tickertape parade through the boroughs followed by the celebrity softball game where the Vanguard took on members of the Yankees and the Mets.

The heroes reacted to the hoopla in various ways:

Xue Zen along with his illusory companions Miss Ming and Frank Sinatra threw himself into the city nightlife with reckless abandon. He received quite a lot of paparazzi attention initially, but after “Frank” roughs one of the camera jockeys up, they gave him a wider berth.

The constant media attention also seemed to crack the Grey Mist from his shy shell – a new hairstyle and autographed glossies greeted the paparazzi during the first week.

Astrid, on the other hand, grew increasingly reclusive as a result of the increased attention. She received a huge amount of attention from the paparazzi – appearing in the tabloids on a nearly daily basis.

The Unknown Soldier continued to patrol the streets, and was successful in capturing a number of minor criminals. All the while he was unfailingly polite to the populace of the city and posed for many pictures with the citizenry.

During the week, the new probationary members left for Richmond to pack up their belongings and close the Liberty Force headquarters.

Aside from all of the parties and excitement surrounding their entry into the city, the heroes continue researching the various crises that have confronted them.

Using the Aerie’s supercomputer, the Unknown Soldier investigated the Bishop’s finances. Much to his chagrin, after days of analysis he was unable to identify a single discrepancy in the Bishop’s books. Certainly there was no evidence of any funds diverted from legitimate sources to fund any technological device suitable for augmenting mind control powers or for power equipment to provide the necessary energy. The Unknown Soldier persisted in his belief that the Bishop is a metahuman.

Meanwhile, the Grey Mist flew over to Boston to meet with Guf. His purpose in meeting with Guf was to determine if Guf knew any information regarding Lee Sung as well as to determine if there were any magical or illusory influences on the happenings in New York. Guf seemed amused to be treated as a magical consultant and assured the teen hero that what is happening in New York is definitely not an illusion. Guf does confirm that Lee Sung’s family has “knowledge of the Occult”.

Following his trip to Boston, the Grey Mist flies to Center City where he assumes his secret identity and seeks out Sergeant Ralk. The Sergeant greets the costumed hero warmly and syas that he doesn’t understand why the Vanguard is getting such bad press – he never thought that they are as bad as everyone says they are. After the interview, the Grey Mist comes away feeling that at least one person in the city isn’t brainwashed, drugged, mind controlled or whatever else has its grip on the city.

When Lee Sung’s minions use their security access to enter the Aerie to check on the heroes’ comfort and needs, Astrid tells them that the Vanguard requires a secret way out of the building so that their every entrance and exit is not monitored by the press. The minions respond that they will bring her request to the ‘Master’.

Late one morning, the heroes’ wrist communicators sounded an unfamiliar tone and a voice from the device requested that they all report to conference room number one. All of the members within easy range reported immediately including Xue Zen, Tree Brother, the Grey Mist, the Unknown Soldier, and Astrid. Once they were all seated, the large video monitor mounted on the wall turned on in a brief blare of static which was immediately replaced by an idealized Asian female Avatar.

The avatar introduced itself to the Vanguard as “Teacher” and informed the heroes that a crisis was brewing in upstate New York. Reports are coming in that the town of Woodamsville has been destroyed. The Vanguard’s aid has been requested. Tree Brother offers to remain in the Aerie monitoring reports and the remaining four heroes head for the roof helipad. Teacher informs them that she has already taken the initiative of paging the pilot and that he is waiting on the roof.

From the distance, the team sees that the reports of ‘destruction’ have been greatly exaggerated by the reports. Where they had been expecting total devastation, they instead see a typical rural town that has experienced a great amount of damage. Furthermore, they see what appears to be a town or county fair of some kind in a state of panic. Armed men are stalking through the crowd striking indiscriminately at the fairgoers. They also see two metahumans – one encased in ice armor and one dressed in a cloak and cowl carrying a staff with glowing energy wrapping around it. He periodically blasts a bit of that energy at a victim as an energy blast.

Astrid orders the chopper to land a short distance away from the fairgrounds to avoid it being shot out of the sky. While it descends, the Grey Mist flies directly into battle attacking the cowled figure screaming, “Back to your Dungeons and Dragons game nerd!” Despite landing 2 direct hits, the cowled figure does not fall. Nor is he alone as the teen hero is also attacked by a high speed villain.

As the rest of the Vanguard converge on the fight, the speedy villain comes to a stop in front of the Grey Mist – making eye contact. To her horror, The Mist turns his mace on Astrid yelling, “Payback for the PS2 witch!” The Unknown Soldier realizes too late that the Mist has been mind controlled and before he can attack, the speedy villain disappears into the crowd.

Meanwhile, Xue Zen approaches the armed villains from the other side of the fairgrounds. He hears the villains say something like, “the hound says that he is over this way”. Xue Zen summons the illusion of a large number of police cars converging on a group of 5 of the crooks. The cops spill out of the cars, weapons drawn, demanding that the villains drop their weapons and hit the dirt. The crooks do not comply with the cops’ demands and in a hail of gunfire, all 5 of the villains are knocked unconscious.

The Grey Mist continues to batter Astrid until she is knocked unconscious while trying in vain to break free of the mental domination. The Unknown Soldier screams for Xue Zen’s help as he fights the Ice-sheathed villain, the cowled villain, the speedy villain, and the Grey Mist single handed. As Xue Zen joins the battle, he discovers yet another villain. A tiny (one inch tall) villain cracks him in the ankle with incredible force – the mighty mite then follows the punch up with a disintegration blast. The heroes are in danger of being overrun!

The heroes fight back valiantly. The Unknown Soldier strikes with precision accuracy with his power blast and Xue Zen summons a huge snake to attack the wounded cowled figure before switching to shooting energy blasts himself. Between the two heroes’ coordinated attack, the cowled figure is knocked unconscious. Xue Zen moves to grab his staff, but the staff disappears – it was an illusion!

As the villain falls, the Unknown Soldier sees the remainder of the armed villains converging on a single spot. He disengages from the immediate fight to prevent them from reaching their goal. As he turns his back on Xue Zen, the Grey Mist turns his attention from Astrid and fixes his glare at the Chinese hero. The teenager makes short work of Xue Zen and turns to chase the Unknown Soldier into the crowd.

As the Unknown Soldier reaches the armed villains, he fells one with a well aimed power blast. Unfortunately, the speedy villain suddenly appears in front of him and fixes the hero with his gaze. The next thing that the heroes know is that the Unknown Soldier and Grey Mist are standing side by side and the villains have all vanished.

The villains are not the only ones to have vanished. The police responding to the call inform the Vanguard that a small boy was kidnapped by the villains. His mother, Margaret, is under sedation and is suffering from shock.

Astrid and Xue Zen regain consciousness and the pair begins to reconstruct what happened. The villains apparently arrived at the fairgrounds in a large RV. They spilled out of the vehicle and caused random destruction on the town square in a successful bid to cause panic and minimize direct confrontation. Following the initial burst of violence, the armed henchmen fanned out in groups of 2 or 3 to search for their target (apparently young Denny). After the heroes arrived and were defeated, the villains located Denny and then the speedy villain teleported everyone away, including the six unconscious villains.

The heroes locate the abandoned RV. With a quick call to Giuseppe Valentini they enlist the vast resources of the NYPD to track down the ownership of the van. A registration check identifies the RV as being owned by the Amerikorp LLC company. Amerikorp appears to be a holding company with few real assets and is obviously a front for some other organization. A more detailed investigation will take time and Detective Valentini promises to get the information to the heroes as soon as possible.

Before leaving Woodamsville, the heroes do manage to talk with Margaret Stoyer. Amid her panic and concern, she reveals that Denny has exhibited some metahuman power.

The heroes return to the Aerie where they use the facility’s supercomputer to try to identify the villains they encountered. With little to go on they have no luck identifying any of their foes – until Detective Valentini calls back with a report on Amerikorp. There is a tangled web of corporate entities, but the computer boys have made a tentative connection between Amerikorp and the terrorist organization Totem. The kidnap of young Denny takes on a more sinister aspect – Totem does not kidnap for ransom… Totem kidnaps young metahumans as a recruitment tool.
Once the heroes begin searching known Totem members, they are successful in identifying three of the terrorists:

The speedy mind-control villain is known as Blink, the”Now you see me – now you don’t” terrorist

The Hound, the name that Xue Zen heard, is a high ranking member of Totem. He is valuable to the terrorists since his primary ability is the power to sense and identify metahumans. He was apparently one of the armed villains that grabbed Denny

Standing on the deck of the Culver watching the dragon dissolve, the heroes are joined by the Professor. During the happy reunion, the Unknown Soldier asked him what happened to him after the battle at the temple. The Professor related a tale of how after he was hit with that immense beam of pure magic energy, he was transported to a limbo-like place for a time before he was able to escape back to the plane of his origin. Once freed, he immediately went to aid the heroes in the Dusking, and fortunately arrived on the scene as the battle was joined with the dragon.

As the green mist faded and the raucous cheers on the Culver died down, the Vanguard grew steadily aware of the silence emanating from the other Navy Vessels. A smaller Navy vessel pulled alongside the Culver and a group of sailors and officers boarded the ship. The senior ranking officer (Captain Amos Dale) assumed command of the Culver for the purpose of taking her back to the Shipyard for repairs. Captain Dale called the heroes together and apologized to them. He had been given orders to expel the Vanguard from the ship. Given the events of the past 7 months, official policy is that they are no longer welcome on Navy property.

Shocked, the Vanguard realizes that another month has passed since Tree Brother joined them in the fog. He sympathizes with the Vanguard since he believes that they are not the threat that others believe. Captain Dale tells the heroes the events of the past 7 months – a tale that agrees with Tree Brother’s description. He also warns the heroes that they will not find a warm welcome in the city. Bishop Fairwell’s campaign against them has left them near Pariahs among the population. Many citizens fully believe that the Vanguard abandoned the city out of cowardice.

Not wanting to cause the Captain any problems with his command, the heroes use their unique skills to leave the Culver. Since their headquarters has been damaged through several attacks as well as condemned, the team meets up at the Richmond apartment of Amaya Kibatsu – the temporary secret headquarters of Liberty Force. Liberty Force welcomes the Vanguard into their base – but no one is happy with the arrangement as the 2 bedroom apartment does not have the physical space necessary to accommodate the sheer quantity of people comfortably – a situation made worse when Grey Mist’s delivery emergency delivery arrives… a 72” plasma screen tv and Playstation 3.

The team debates about what to do next. A quick call to Agent Shannon is made and before long, the MEDUSA Agent arrives at the apartment. In his gruff, disapproving manner, he tells the heroes that nationally the opinion of the Vanguard is not too bad – some news outlets have run with the vanishing heroes and cowardice angles, but especially after the story of the battle with the dragon gets out, they should have no trouble with their reputation outside of Center City. Now that the Governor of Maryland has made it clear that his state will no longer be considered as a site to host the federal super team, MEDUSA has been working with other cities along the East Coast to find a suitable home base for the Vanguard. Not surprisingly, it has not been difficult to find candidates – several cities are bidding on the right to host the team. He asks if the group would prefer an underground base, a skyscraper base, or a base similar to the one they have been using. With one voice, the Vanguard responds that they would much prefer an underground base. The feeling is that a ground-level base is too exposed and a skyscraper base is not only exposed, but runs the risk of putting innocents in danger. For the first time, a ghost of a grin appears on Shannon’s face – ‘I’ll see what I can do’. Before leaving he lets the team know that their federal pay which has been frozen will now be made available to them.

After the Agent’s departure, the heroes debate excitedly about the possible locations for their new base. The Bat joked, “If we were in New York City, I could be Batman’s partner!” The Grey Mist immediately responded, “You’re a bat… you would have to be Robinman’s partner!”

During the debate, Astrid places a phone call to Stanislaw the phone is answered by Devea. She responds distantly to Astrid and then accuses the hero, “You have brought a friend back from the Dusking – I have felt his presence. What deal did you make that allows him to enter this world?” It sounds as if Baron Zelmut has followed the heroes into the Material World. Astrid asks if he is a friend of hers – Devea responds icily, “No.”
Devea also tells Astrid that Stanislaw is not in. It seems that after the Vanguard’s “cowardly abandonment” of the city, Stanislaw felt the need to become active again and leave retirement. “He is currently out ‘on patrol’ – whatever he means by that.”

Growing impatient while waiting for Agent Shannon to get back to them, the Unknown Soldier decides to go out on patrol himself – he feels that they are still responsible for Center City. Astrid joins him on patrol while Grey Mist and Amaya Kibatsu follow them on patrol while in their secret identities. Xue Zen takes advantage of the break in the action (as well as the liberation of his money) to visit several car dealerships to replace his destroyed truck.

While on patrol, the Unknown Soldier and Astrid encountered definite hostility from the populace – to the extent that some people even cross the street to avoid coming into contact with the hero. Undaunted, the heroes continue to walk the streets. After an hour or so, the pair were confronted by Bishop Fairwell and several of his followers. The pair held a brief conversation with the Bishop where the Bishop let it be known that the Vanguard are no longer welcomed in Center City. The Unknown Soldier responds by outright accusing the Bishop of being a super-powered metahuman with the power of mind control. The growing crowd grows increasingly hostile as the Soldier levies accusations against the Bishop.

During the confrontation, the Grey Mist manages to use his weakness detection camera on the Bishop and his compatriots. The Bishop’s friends included:

The Bishop recognizes the Grey Mist in his civilian clothes and admonishes him. The Mist leaves the scene – returning shortly later in his superhero identity. The conflict continued to escalate until it became evident that the citizens were going to become violent. The heroes decided at that point that discretion is the better part of valor and left. As a parting gift, the Grey Mist conjured up a rain storm.

The heroes try to map out the effective limits of the suspected mind control field so that they can identify the center of the area. They reason that one man is not powerful enough to affect a whole city so he must have some kind of transmitter. Their results were inconclusive. The citizenry appeared to be more hostile the closer they got to the Bishop’s mansion, but they were not able to establish any definite pattern that would justify an unlawful inspection of the property. The Grey Mist uses his electrical power to knock out the power to the area of the city that includes the mansion – but there is no change in the behavior of the populace.

That evening, Agent Shannon returns to Kibatsu’s apartment and informs the Vanguard with a bit of a sadistic grin that the potential underground headquarters fell through when Charleston was unable to meet certain guarantees. The team will have to settle for a skyscraper base in New York City – and be extra careful to protect the civilians living in the building below them. While Shannon is describing the base, Grey Mist takes off and flies at top speed to check out the property immediately.

The base is on floors 32 and 33 of a skyscraper in Manhatten as well as rooftop access with a helipad and helicopter. It is luxuriously appointed and has state of the art security, computer, and communications equipment. There is also a pilot on retainer who lives on floor 28. Agent Shannon looks increasingly despondent as he describes the facility. The entire complex was donated by a private citizen, Lee Sung. At the mention of the name Lee Sung, Xue Zen gives a noticeable start.

Grey Mist comes rocketing back and demands that the team come and see the new digs NOW! Through a combination of flight and teleportation, the Vanguard and Shannon arrive in Manhattan quickly and are blown away by the facility. Only Xue Zen is less than ecstatic about the arrangement.
When pressed, he admits that Lee Sung is his Uncle – and that he believes that he is the true owner of Xue Zen’s magic equipment. There is undoubtedly some ulterior motive for his Uncle’s generosity – and Xue Zen is certain that he will get the worst of it when the other shoe drops.
Agent Shannon informs the Vanguard that Lee Sung is throwing a major banquet in their honor to welcome them to the city. Everyone by Kibatsu and Xue Zen eagerly attend – and those two attend, just not so eagerly. Xue Zen attends with Miss Ming and Frank Sinatra – blatantly flaunting the powers of his ring in front of his Uncle.

While at the banquet, the heroes are introduced to a great many NYC VIP’s. In addition to Lee Sung, some notable guests include Lucas Wolf and Detective [Giuseppe Valentini]] who has been recently promoted and will serve as the Vanguard’s police liaison. A great time was had by all, except for the Bat who commented loudly that the Sushi was undercooked and Agent Shannon who never seems to have a good time.

Upon their return to their headquarters, Agent Shannon asks the members of Liberty Force to join him in the conference room. Within minutes of the door closing, the members of the Vanguard hear loud noises, thumping and screaming coming from the conference room – they go bursting in to see a group of Medusa Agents raising a clatter, the members of Liberty Force looking confused and Agent Shannon clicking a stopwatch, “4.3 seconds – not bad”. Apparently, the exercise was some kind of loyalty test and Agent Shannon announces that the members of Liberty Force are being brought in as probationary members of the Vanguard.